Warsaw  - Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa testified Wednesday at a trial of Polish communist-era chiefs accused of ordering a 1970 massacre, taking the stand against the general who once jailed him.

General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who would later declare martial law in an attempt to stamp out the Solidarity labor union, was Poland's defense minister when security forces killed 44 shipyard workers on the Baltic coast during food-price protests.

Warsaw - Poland's ambassador to Iraq has resigned after failing to recover from burns sustained in a roadside bombing last year, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

General Edward Pietrzyk's wounds have not healed and "demand a different climate" for treatment than Iraq can offer, a ministry spokesman said.

No successor has been named.

Pietrzyk's envoy was attacked last October in Baghdad near the Polish embassy, killing one of his bodyguards and an Iraqi civilian.

After five weeks of medical care, where he was for a time kept in an artificial coma to manage pain, Pietrzyk decided to return to Baghdad.

Warsaw - Some 50 trams in the Polish capital will soon hit the streets with large "sober" signs on the back as part of a national program to fight drunken driving, media reported Friday.

The trams will join a few dozen buses that recently donned the oversized signs, designed in the style of Polish licence plates.

The programme is the brainchild of a Polish priest who was appalled at the number of drunken drivers on Polish roads.

It is part of a broader nationwide programme that promotes a sober lifestyle through billboards, commercials and contests.

Warsaw  - Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski met with US Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Mull Wednesday in the latest round of talks on Polish demands in exchange for a proposed American missile defence system based eastern Europe.

Their meeting came after a day of talks among four teams of experts, said US Embassy spokesman Andrew Schilling. For the past two months the teams have been analyzing the military threat to Poland, strategic options for defence, defence technology and financing.

Warsaw  - Jakub Tomczak, a Polish man given a double-life sentence for a rape in England, arrived to do his time in western Poland on Wednesday, the Polish Press Agency reported.

Warsaw  - Poland and the United States made progress in talks Monday on US plans to set up a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, both sides said.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski met US Assistance Secretary of State Daniel Fried in Warsaw to discuss the proposal to place 10 long-range missile interceptors in Poland, which the Poles want Washington to sweeten with military aid.

"It was a good discussion," Sikorski told reporters, "which moved Poland's and the United States' viewpoints closer on the missile shield."