Poland

Poland's foreign minister said Friday that his country had agreed in principle to a controversial missile defense system proposed by the U.S. after receiving assurances that Washington would help with other defense needs.

Poland and the United States struck a deal Thursday that will strengthen military ties and put an American missile interceptor base in Poland, a plan that has infuriated Moscow and sparked fears in Europe of a new arms race. Washington says the planned system, which is not yet operational, is needed to protect the U.S. and Europe from possible attacks by missile-armed "rogue states," such as Iran.

Poland turned over control of an area south of Baghdad to American troops on Saturday, making it the latest in a string of countries to leave the dwindling U.S.-led coalition. As a band played their national anthem, Polish soldiers hoisted Poland's red and white flag on a parade field at their main base, Camp Echo, just outside Diwaniya. Maj. Gen.

Shots were fired Sunday as a motorcade carrying the presidents of Georgia and Poland approached a checkpoint near the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Georgian officials said. No one was hurt, and details of the incident were disputed even among Georgian officials. Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the shots were fired as the motorcade approached a Russian military checkpoint near the town of Akhalgori in South Ossetia.

The new archbishop of Warsaw admitted Friday that he had worked with communist-era secret police and appeared to open the door for the pope to remove him from his post. In a statement issued Friday, Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on Dec. 6, appeared to back down from earlier denials about his activities. Critics have called on him to resign. "By the fact of this entanglement I have damaged the church.... I will respect any decision the pope makes," Wielgus said.

A national drama that has embarrassed the Roman Catholic Church and roused Cold War memories ended in spectacle Sunday when the new archbishop of Warsaw resigned before his inauguration Mass after admitting that he had collaborated with communist secret police decades ago. The Vatican quickly accepted the resignation of Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, who waited until hours before a ceremony in St. John's Cathedral before capitulating to public pressure for him to step down.

A prominent Catholic clergyman resigned after allegations about his links to communist-era secret police, a day after Warsaw's new archbishop quit. The Rev. Janusz Bielanski resigned as rector of Krakow's prestigious Wawel Cathedral, burial place of Polish kings and queens, church spokesman Robert Necek said. Warsaw Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus resigned Sunday.

A court convicted two doctors and two ambulance workers of participating in a scheme in which 14 patients were allowed to die -- or in some cases killed with muscle relaxants -- in return for kickbacks from funeral homes. All received prison sentences, ranging from five years to life. Funeral homes in Lodz paid ambulance service employees bribes in exchange for tips about deaths, so the homes could get clients.

Copernicus Airport. 12:52 p.m. A former Polish soldier arrives from Ireland, where he waits tables and studies computers. He shimmies through customs and tows his suitcases out sliding glass doors, just as two lovers with new passports step to the ticket counter for a flight to the British Midlands and jobs in a cookie factory. Babies wail, duffel bags zip shut, tears fall on winter coats. Every day is like this. Poles come and go, ferried across Europe on budget airlines to new, unsure lives.

The priest is gray-haired but still strong, black vestments tight across his chest. He walks briskly in the cold morning light, remembering when the communist secret police slipped in amid the faithful and tried to turn him into a spy. "The secret police were always in our lives," said Father Jerzy Szlezak. "They promised me a job if I wouldn't go into the seminary. Then when I was a priest, they told me not to read the bishop's letters to my congregation.... I didn't relent."