Ukrainian prosecutors have brought charges of obstruction of justice against a former Polish government minister suspected of masterminding a massive corruption scheme in Ukraine.
Sławomir Nowak, who served as transport minister from 2011 to 2013 in Poland’s former coalition government was detained in July last year by Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in a joint probe with Ukrainian investigators. Nowak is suspected of deliberately failing to carry out, and hindering the execution of, a Ukrainian court order to reinstate a senior management employee in a regional branch of Ukraine’s State Road Agency, where he was the head. The charges carry a prison term of three to eight years.
Poland’s health minister said on Tuesday that a medical centre faces a fine of at least PLN 250,000 after it allowed a group of celebrities to jump the queue for COVID-19 vaccinations.
In what the Polish media has dubbed a jabs-for-celebrities scandal, a medical centre owned by the Warsaw Medical University last week administered anti-coronavirus shots to 18 people including household-name actors and politicians. Jabs in Poland are for the time being supposed to be offered to front-line healthcare workers and their families, though there are a few exceptions. Actors and politicians who jumped the queue have said they thought they were taking part in a campaign to promote vaccinations in Poland, but the health ministry has cast doubt on that version of events.
Polish climber Magdalena Gorzkowska is taking on one of the last great challenges in the world of high-altitude mountaineering: a winter ascent of K2.
Gorzkowska is also an accomplished track and field sprinter who competes in the 400 metres and whose accomplishments in mountaineering include ascents of Mont Blanc, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest as the youngest Polish female to do so, and Mount Makalu, the fifth highest mountain in the world, as the first Polish female without supplemental oxygen.
And finally, a private jet made an emergency landing at Gdańsk airport yesterday afternoon at around 1pm.
The aircraft, with 3 people on-board, reported a drop in cabin pressure en-route from from Moscow to Germany and made the mayday call. Five fire tenders were dispatched to the airport, but were not needed as the plane made a safe landing and there were no reported disruptions to flights at the airport.
Weather
Today will be another cloudy and wet day with a gentle breeze and chances of snow on higher ground. Temperatures will reach 1 degree centigrade (32 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to -1 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will continue to be cloudy with chances of snow showers and temperatures of 1 degree centigrade during the day and -1 degrees overnight.
Martin Caren/ako
