Polish security services have detained a man in the south of Poland who is suspected of planning an Islamic terrorist attack in the country. The suspect had collected “products and information” to make a suicide explosive belt, according to officials.

According to security services, the suspect converted to Islam late last year and “his role models were terror leaders such as Osama bin Laden.” The detained man had been plotting a bomb attack on a government building with a group claiming to represent the Islamic State terrorist organisation (ISIS). The suspect will be remanded in pre-trial detention for three months and faces between a year and 10 years in prison.

Source – Polskie Radio

Polish MPs have approved a bill to combat violence against children in the wake of a tragic murder of an 8-year-old boy in the south of the country in May.

The Polish lower house, the Sejm, passed the bill in a 441-11 vote, with one abstention, on Thursday night. Under the bill, all children’s institutions will have to comply with a set of child protection standards, according to officials. These include vetting new staff for sex crimes and child violence crimes, as well as drafting and implementing a code of practice for safe staff-child relations. The legislation was drafted in response to the tragic death of an 8-year-old boy who was killed by his stepfather in the southern city of Częstochowa earlier this year. Both the stepfather, who has a previous criminal record for child abuse, and the mother, are facing a life sentence. The bill now goes to the Senate, the upper house of parliament, for consideration.

Source – Polskie Radio

Polish MPs have approved a bill to offer free medicines to children and young people up to the age of 18, and to seniors over the age of 65.

Under the plan, an estimated 11.5 million Poles, including some 7 million children and youth, will gain access to free medication. To date, free medicines have been available to seniors over the age of 75, some 4 million people in total. Now the number of those eligible will increase to around 16 million. The number of medicines covered by the programme will almost double to 4,000.

Source – Polskie Radio

And finally, firefighters at Gdańsk airport have been called to a blaze in one of the airport’s car parks which saw 10 cars go up in flames.

The incident occurred at around 5pm yesterday. The fire was quickly brought under control according to fire service representatives. The blaze resulted in 4 cars being totally burned out, while 7 others suffered various degrees of fire damage. Five units of the State Fire Service participated in the operation. No one was injured during the incident.

Source – Radio Gdańsk

Weather

Today will be a sunny day in light winds with temperatures of 24 degrees centigrade (82 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and 17 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will remain sunny with thundery showers later in a light breeze and temperatures of 26 degrees during the day and 14 degrees overnight.

That was the Radio Gdańsk English news and weather.

Martin Caren