Warsaw - Eighteen people died and 21 more were injured when a hotel burned down Monday on Poland's Baltic Sea coast, local media reported. The fire was so big and had spread so much that there was no hope for extinguishing it, and rescuers concentrated on saving people from the flames, a firefighter told TVN24.

Witnesses said some hotel guests were injured when they jumped from windows.

Warsaw - Poland is to increase its troop numbers in Afghanistan to 2,000 ahead of the troubled country's presidential elections, it was announced Friday. Poland currently has 1,600 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has approved the request by his government for the additional forces, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said on Friday in Krakow.

Warsaw - Seventy years after the outbreak of World War II, Poland will launch a database of some 2 million victims of the fighting, the daily Polska reported on Thursday.

The database will be available in the next several days on straty. pl, and will include the location and circumstances of the victims' death. Families or loved ones will have the option to add to the list of victims.

Warsaw - Poland's best-

Warsaw - Some urbanites may complain of a Starbucks on every corner of their city, but for Warsaw residents the arrival of the world's biggest coffee shop chain means further prestige and worldliness for Poland.

For Andrzej Bacinski, 34, it means the end of an era of wondering when the next world-known brand will finally arrive in the country.

"I remember Poland's first McDonald's, and the lines were so long," Bacinski said. "And this is the end of that era. We've got everything now."

Warsaw - A Polish awards ceremony sparked debate Tuesday when the
president honoured a controversial institute accused of lying about
Solidarity icon Lech Walesa.

President Lech Kaczynski honored historians and the chief of the
Institute of National Remembrance, which prosecutes Nazi and communist
crimes.

But the honours come amid criticism that the institute slandered Walesa and should be called the institute of "national lies."

The former anti-communist leader has even threatened to leave