Poland deficit to reach 3% in 2013, says PM

Euro-hopeful Poland will meet a key condition for joining the eurozone by reducing its public deficit to 3.0 percent of gross domestic product by the end of 2012, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday."At the end of 2012, Poland will fulfill the main Maastricht (Treaty) criteria, this means a public deficit which does not exceed 3.0 percent of GDP," Tusk said in a speech outlining the economic program of his centrist coalition government for the coming years.

A state-of-the-art science centre co-financed by the European Union opened its doors in Warsaw Friday with a spectacular multi-media "Big Bang" extravaganza by British film director Peter Greenaway."It's a great day for Polish science and may this Big Bang be the only kind of explosion we have on Earth, in Poland and Warsaw," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the start of the hour-long event detailing the origins of the universe and the great minds of science that inaugurated the Copernicus Science Centre.

A state-of-the-art science centre co-financed by the European Union opened its doors in Warsaw Friday with a spectacular multi-media "Big Bang" extravaganza by British film director Peter Greenaway."It's a great day for Polish science and may this Big Bang be the only kind of explosion we have on Earth, in Poland and Warsaw," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the start of the hour-long event detailing the origins of the universe and the great minds of science that inaugurated the Copernicus Science Centre.

A state-of-the-art science centre co-financed by the European Union opened its doors in Warsaw Friday with a spectacular multi-media "Big Bang" extravaganza by British film director Peter Greenaway."It's a great day for Polish science and may this Big Bang be the only kind of explosion we have on Earth, in Poland and Warsaw," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the start of the hour-long event detailing the origins of the universe and the great minds of science that inaugurated the Copernicus Science Centre.

Poland's prime minister said Friday that Warsaw would put on ice plans to ratify a controversial international online anti-piracy accord after massive off-and-online protests in his country."I consider that the arguments for a halt to the ratification process are justified," Donald Tusk told reporters."The issue of signing of the ACTA accord did not involve sufficient consultation with everyone who is part of the process," Tusk said, adding that he would hold broad talks on what to do next.

The Bank of Spain just sent a stark message. In its annual update of economic forecasts, it estimates Spain's economy will shrink 1.5% in 2013 - that is three times as bad as the official government forecast of -0.5%.

Poland's government approved Tuesday draft legislation aimed at plugging legal loopholes allowing the production and sale of designer drugs, in a bid to thwart a flourishing trade."We've prepared a very restrictive, razor sharp and I believe efficient draft law," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw."We want to create a situation in which designer drugs are categorised as narcotics, which is what they in fact are," Tusk said.The drugs can be sold legally as their molecular structure differs from banned substances even though they have similar effects.