Warsaw - Poland will end its missions in Chad, Lebanon and the Golan Heights, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich announced on Wednesday, as part of government budget cuts prompted by the economic downturn.

Klich told Radio ZET that Wednesday he will inform President Lech Kaczynski of the plans to axe those three peace-keeping missions, but that Polish troops will remain in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

"In accordance with the strategy accepted by the government in early January, the NATO missions are an absolute priority," he told Radio ZET.

Warsaw - Although Poles now feel richer, more free and better dressed, they also feel more stress than under communism, said a poll Tuesday in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

Some 91 per cent said they feel more stress now than they did during Poland's communist regime from 1945 to 1989, said the survey of 500 people. Nearly 70 per cent said they are now working harder and have less time for friends and family.

Warsaw - Seven Polish soldiers accused of killing Afghan civilians took the stand on Tuesday in what was the first trial in Polish history on violating the Hague and Geneva conventions.

The court ruled to close the proceedings off to the media, saying it could lead to "dramatization" of the case and that the hall was too small to hold journalists.

Prosecutors claim to have strong evidence that the soldiers unlawfully killed civilians in the Afghan village of Nangar Khel in August 2007. They say the villagers posed no threat and the soldiers knowingly fired into building that contained civilians.

Warsaw - Deutsche Bahn will purchase Poland's private rail carrier PCC Logistics, a company spokesperson said on Friday.

Deutsche Bahn head Hartmut Mehdorn signed the deal in Warsaw on Friday with PCC board member Norbert Bensel and Waldemar Preussner, founder and owner of the PCC Group, a company statement said.

PCC Logistics employs some 5,800 people and is the biggest private rail company in Poland.

London - Polish artist Miroslaw Balka has been chosen to create the next installation to fill the large turbine hall entrance of the Tate Modern art gallery in London, the Tate said Friday.

Balka is the 10th artist to receive a commission, sponsored by Unilever, to create an artwork for temporary exhibition in the vast hall of the gallery, a former power station.

His work will be unveiled on October 12 and will be on show until April 5, 2010.

It will replace a current display of bunk beds and giant sculptures by French artist Dominique Gonzales-Foerster.

Warsaw - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was to meet with his cabinet ministers Friday on slashing government spending, amid forecasts of slowing economic growth and rising inflation.

Tusk asked ministries for a plan that would cut spending by some 17 billion zloty (5.15 billion dollars,) the Polish Press Agency PAP reported, and would amount to a 10 per cent cut in expenses for the first half of 2009.