The Senate accepted a draft bill for regulations introducing a cap on fees for perpetual usufruct. According to Law and Justice, it is supposed to prevent the practices of local governments resulting in very large increases in the cost of transforming the right to perpetual usufruct of land into ownership. All amendments proposed by the Civic Platform, including the 98-percent rebate for the transformation of land owned by the state treasury, were rejected.

President Andrzej Duda has accepted the ruling the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) but that doesn't mean he agrees with it. He signed the bill regarding the Supreme Court but the amended law still hasn't been published, throwing into question whether the dispute has been settled or not. The situation has been further provoked by Andrzej Duda's statement that justices who are sometimes stained with communism are coming back to Polish top court.

On Thursday in Kraków, died Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, auxiliary bishop of Sosnowiec between 1992 and 1998, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Poland in 1993-1998 and rector of Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków in 1998-2004, the press office of the Polish bishops' conference informed on Twitter on Thusday.

In the district hospital in Bolesławiec, somebody dismounted the power generator and stole some of its metal parts, thereby endangering the lives of patients. Thieves most likely wanted to sell the parts as scrap metal. The generator is the centre piece of equipment of in hospitals. When the power goes out it powers all of the machines that monitor patients and sometimes keeps them alive.

At first was the word and it landed in a drawer which had belonged to a young vicar Joseph Mohr. Safely locked for two years, the drawer was thankfully opened on the Christmas Eve in 1818. That day marked the creation of the melody to the six verses of a poem that 200 years later is recognised by all Christians. Since then "Silent Night" has been translated into more than 300 languages and dialects. The history of its creation is just as simple as it is incredible.

Pope Francis, in his Christmas message to the world on Tuesday, urged people to see differences as a source of richness instead of danger and called for reconciliation in places torn apart by war and conflict.

Only on Christmas Eve alone there were 67 accidents which took the lives of 6 people, informed the Police Main Headquarters (KGP) on Tuesday. In total, 30 people died on Polish roads since Friday.

One of the men attacked in a cinema in Szczecin died on Monday. The attacker stabbed two men with a knife causing multiple injuries.

It's official. There's a surplus in Polish budget after November, amounting to 11 billion zlotys. This is an unprecedented results in the Polish public finances. President Duda has signed an act increasing VAT to 23 percent from the start of 2019. The ruling Law and Justice party have not kept their promise from the 2015 election campaign, when the now former PM Beata Szydło said the VAT rates would be lowered. Poles are paying 10 percent more for bread and experts warn that this is not the end of increases. Business news from Poland with Mateusz Walczak.

Poland is drowning in smog. It's still very bad and in the evenings in some places it's awful. The toxic smog usually attacks in the morning and late at night. It's not only possible to image what we breathe but also to see it, literally. A vacuum cleaner experiment allows to see what exactly is getting inside out lungs.

A brilliant gynecologist and one of the best specialists in Poland passed away at the age of 62. Professor Romuald Dębski was the head of the clinic of obstetrics and gynecology at the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education at the Bielański Hospital in Warsaw. Professor Dębski attended to the most serious cases. He conducted operations that saved lives of many unborn children. He also performed abortions in situations permissible by the law. Dębski operated on patients that other doctors were simply afraid to treat. Operation unique in a global scale were performed on his ward. Professor Dębski said that he couldn't have imagined doing anything else than his "beautiful profession".

A locker room of a small local football club in Poland Wilki Różana (Wolves) has been broken into and plundered. However, the big Wolves from Premier League came to the rescue for their smaller brothers. Wolverhampton Wanderers have found out about the troubled lower-league club from Lower Silesia and sent a set of brand new football kits and equipment to Poland. Now the whole pack may howl from joy after hunting down their next prey on the football pitch.

Industrial production in Poland increased by 4,7 percent in November year on year. That's a bit less less than in October, but nevertheless is seen as a positive surprise that beat the forecasts. Christmas brings record income for shopping malls. Crude oil barrel price makes drivers around the world happy, also in Poland. Business news from Poland with Mateusz Walczak.

According to estimates, the budget deficit for 2018 shouldn’t exceed 15 billion zlotys, informed the Minister of Finance Teresa Czerwińska. She stressed, however, that the ministry is still counting the exact figure.

Four people were injured on Saturday at a Christmas fair in the Ukrainian city of Lviv as several booths caught fire. A Lviv city council official confirmed via social networks that two people were seriously burnt and one received fragment wounds. According to the statement on the council's website, the investigation team considers misuse of gas cylinders at site the main reason of the accident. Local police said criminal investigation was launched against one of the businessmen, who is charged with a breach of safety requirements.

The Central Bureau of Police Investigations broke up a gang of pimps last weekend in Kraków. Four people, including one married couple were running brothels in the city. Four brothels were closed and sixteen people were arrested in total. The four main suspects are believed to have run and taken part in organised crime group that profited from prostitution.

After 11 months of 2018 the Polish budget is still having a surplus and it's even bigger than in October, said the Minister of Finance, Teresa Czerwińska. According to the latest estimates, October was closed with a 6,5-billion-zlotys surplus. Good information also from the labour market as wages in Poland have strongly upped. The average age of cars registered in Poland is about 13 years. Business news from Poland with Mateusz Walczak.

On Thursday onet.pl portal wrote that "thousands of SKOK Wołomin credit union haven't been paying off their loans. Among those people was Piotr Kaczorek". According to onet.pl, in 2013 Kaczorek borrowed 160,000 zlotys from the credit union. Currently, his debts are said to have amounted up to 200,000 zlotys. That wouldn't be anything extraordinary except that Piotr Kaczorek is working for the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) and has been appearing in media providing information about ongoing investigations. According to Civic Platform's MP Robert Kropiwnicki, the CBA should be taken off the SKOK Wołomin case and a parliamentary commission should be summoned to investigate the scandal. The CBA has temporarily suspended Piotr Kaczorek and informed that an investigation has been launched "in order to thoroughly examine the information regarding Mr Kaczorek's debt".

They save human lives on a daily basis. This time they set out to save a dog. The Mountain Volunteer Search and Rescue (GOPR) was called in by two back-country skiers whose dog got very weak in the higher mountains. Thankfully, a very difficult rescue mission ended well and the tourists with their dog are safe and sound.

Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Friday at a 'peace march' staged by spoof political party, the Two-Tailed Dog Party (MKKP) "to support government policies, Christmas and snowfall" -- the latest in a string of demonstrations stoked by controversial legal reforms.

In recent days, in many regions of Poland the levels of suspended particles in the air were extremely high. The worst levels were in the southern and central regions of the country. The worst air quality was registered in Nowy Sącz, Żywiec, Rybnik and Łódź. Kraków has also been suffering for several weeks. Experts from the Polish Smog Alarm filled us in on the details.

An incredibly dangerous manouver on Polish road number 7. Despite approaching a continuous line and a turn, a truck driver decided to start to overtake several other vehicles. As soon as he drove in to the oncoming traffic lane, another car appeared in front of him. That too wasn't enough danger for the driver and he continued to overtake the remaining cars. After a few seconds he overtook another truck, when another truck appeared in the oncoming lane. The vehicles barely fit on the road and a tragedy was a mere centimetres away.

Pope Francis on Friday urged predator priests who have sexually abused minors to turn themselves in, making one of his strongest comments ever on the crisis sweeping the Roman Catholic Church.

Law and Justice senator Grzegorz Bierecki says he will file a lawsuit against "Gazeta Wyborcza" daily which wrote that the senator's two foundations unsuccesfully attempted to open deposits in Getin Noble Bank, when the prosecutor's office was already investigating siphoning money from SKOK Wołomin credit union. Senator Bierecki declares that he had no idea about such attempts, as he was only a founder of the organisations and wasn't managing them.

Not only employees of the judicial system are asking for raises, as teachers are also requesting 1,000 zlotys more. Many of them went on sick leaves in protest against low wages. The employers are sending requests to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) for controls of sick leaves of some teachers. It's our duty to respond to each of the notifications, says the ZUS spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz.

It only took ten seconds to complete a controlled demolition of four concrete silos in Wrocław. The structures were one of the most characteristic sights in the city and were built in the 1960s. The biggest of the four was 38 meters tall. Seventeen kilograms of explosives were used for the demolition. Now a new housing development will be built on the site.

We're implementing mechanism that will allow us to keep energy prices at the current levels, there will be no increases in energy prices, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Friday.

A methane explosion killed 12 Poles and one Czech at an eastern Czech coal mine, the OKD mining company said on Friday, in the worst disaster of this kind in almost three decades.

The Polish Teachers' Union has announced a countrywide protest of educators. The unionists are demanding a 1000 zloty payrise for teachers. They are also critical of the new system of work that was introduced on the 1st of September. At the meeting of the board of the Polish Teachers' Union, its leader Sławomir Broniarz announced a protest. "We support the teachers who for their own good, as well the good of their students have been taking doctors' leave of absence. We're convinced that the status quo cannot continue," said Mr Broniarz.

There will be no increases in the price of electricity and several ministers are working on this, said the Polish PM. The opposition is asking how the higher prices will suddenly disappear. The minister of energy has reassured yet again that electricity costs won't go up and Poles will not be affected. He stressed that he had earmarked 5 billion zlotys to tackle this problem, thanks to the EU Commission's positive decision regarding using old certificates for emissions.