AFP: Awaiting progress in Poland 05 November

Gay and lesbian rights have improved in recent years, and pride marches have become annual events across the West. But homosexuality remains illegal in 75 countries, including in nine where it is punishable by death. In Poland, the arch-conservative government has proposed to roll back gay rights by banning discussion of homosexuality in schools. The EU has warned such a law will violate European law. Gays in Poland are the object of widespread discrimination, and four out of every five feel they are outcasts. Retransmission of a voiced report from Warsaw originally filed on April 26, 2007.

Since Poland dropped its west-facing borders to join the Schengen free trade zone last month, thousands of Chechen refugees have arrived. Many see Poland as a waystation on their migration further west to Germany or France. This report from the Debak centre for asylum seekers, where many have only one desire: to move away.

Poland is playing joint host to the Euro 2012 football championships but little is on track for being ready in time. Stadiums lie in ruins, motorways remain unbuilt and there is still a massive lack of hotels.

Even though Roman Catholicism is well implanted in Poland, the country has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. In 2005, the figure was 1.2 children per woman and until last year, there were more deaths than births. One of the problems is that women worry they won't be able to reconcile their family life with their working one. And discrimination against young mothers is a real problem.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski is holding talks with a number of EU leaders this week over his objections to a simplified EU constitution, which is due to be discussed at an EU summit on June 21 and 22. Poland has threatened to veto the proposals for the scaled-down treaty unless concerns over its voting rights within the bloc are addressed, something Germany refuses. Voiced report.

For a year now Poland has been led by identical twins, President Lech Kaczynski and his prime minister, Jaroslaw. Their Law and Justice Party has held on to power through its conservative coalition, but the government has been seriously weakened by a series of roiling crises. A report looks back on their year in power.

Poland's conservative prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski handed in his resignation to his twin, President Lech Kaczynski, on Monday ending a surprise political double act on the European stage. The newly-elected parliament held its first sitting later Monday, putting the official seal on the end of his premiership. Lech Kaczynski is expected to name a bitter political rival Donald Tusk the new prime minister later this week. Tusk's party, the Civic Platform, won the early elections after camapigning on a platform of free-market reforms and promising warmer relations with Warsaw's EU partners. An AFPTV voiced report.

Poland commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising on Tuesday in the presence of Israeli President Shimon Peres. On April 19, 1943 some 1,000 ghetto dwellers took up arms in a last stand against the Nazis.

In Falaise, the anchor point is pounded by Canadian artillery, then their tanks and infantry drive into town and mop up the snipers...Farther East, at St. Mars La Brier, 215 Soviet women and girls who were brought to France as slave labour, and subjected to beatings by the Nazis when they resisted, are liberated... At Chartres, the Yanks drive out the Nazis, using small arms to spare damage to the historic cathedral...In southern France, the pent-up anger of the French manifests itself. Attractive French girls who have collaborated with the enemy have their heads shaved as the townspeople revile them... At St Malo, fanatical German defenders of this ancient fortress surrender only after their ammunition and brandy have been consumed. Showers of air bombs speed their capitulation.