Warsaw - Some 200 labor union members in Warsaw occupied Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office on Wednesday, demanding a meeting with Tusk on a bill that would slash early retirement.

Members of "August 80" - a more hard-line group than the Solidarity union - said they wouldn't leave until they got a meeting. Tusk was at the time in Frankfurt for talks with the European Central Bank on Poland's entry into the eurozone.

Warsaw- Poland marked 90 years of modern-day independence Tuesday with tears, patriotic speeches and a gala that controversially left former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa off the guest list.

The national holiday included Roman Catholic church services, parades and ceremonies at monuments to General Jozef Pilsudski, who led Poland toward freedom in
1918 after 123 years of partition by Austria, Germany and Russia.

Warsaw- Poland kicked off celebrations on Tuesday marking the 90th anniversary of the country's independence amid controversy at the omission of former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa from the guest list.

The state holiday was to include church services, parades, historic re-enactments and ceremonies at monuments to General Jozef Pilsudski, who led Poland towards independence in 1918. Poland had been partitioned for 123 years by regional powers Austria, Germany and Russia.

Moscow/Warsaw/Washington - The office of Barack Obama Saturday said the president-elect has no commitment to building a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.

The statement from Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, came as Russia and Poland jockeyed for attention from the administration-in-waiting over the disputed defence system that Poland and Czech Republic have approved.

Brussels - Lithuania and Poland should bow to the majority of European Union member states and approve the immediate relaunch of talks on a strategic deal with Russia, despite their own security concerns, top EU officials warned Friday.

The decision to restart talks "may not be 100 per cent what your feelings are, but it's better for you to be together with all the other (EU) states in expressing a view rather than having some countries making agreements with Russia and others not," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Brussels - The Polish government must sell off two loss-making shipyards which were the cradle of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement to claim back hundreds of millions of euros in illegal state aid, the European Union's executive ruled Thursday.

"State aid granted to the shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin gives rise to disproportionate distortions of competition ... in breach of EC Treaty state aid rules, and must be repaid," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told journalists in Brussels.