POLAND: About 200 coal-miners began blocking railway tracks on the Russian border yesterday in protest at cheap coal imports which they consider a threat to their jobs.

In response, the country’s centre-left opposition called on new Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz to hold an urgent debate on the mining industry.

Poland is committed to coal, but falling exports and cheaper imports from Russia’s Kaliningrad pose economic difficulties.

SOUTH KOREA: Seoul announced yesterday that it had decided to buy 40 F-35A fighter jets from US manufacturer Lockheed Martin for about $7 billion (£4.3bn).

It would be the country’s biggest-ever weapons purchase in response to allegations of a military threat from North Korea.

The state-run Defence Acquisition Programme Administration says that the new planes would assist in attacking strategic targets in North Korea in the event of war.

FRANCE: Air France-KLM said yesterday that there was no truth in the claim that it was ready to abandon a plan to transfer activities to low-cost carrier Transavia.

Junior Transport Minister Alain Vidalies had claimed earlier that Air France was withdrawing the plan in the face a protracted strike by pilots.

But Air France spokesman Cedric Leurquin insisted that there has been “no change in the negotiations.”

PORTUGAL: Public health service nurses began a 48-hour strike yesterday over pay, working hours and acute staff shortages.

The Portuguese Nurses Union said that over 80 per cent of its members had walked out, forcing cancellation of many hospital operations and some treatments.

The government’s austerity programme has included pay cuts and longer hours for public employees, including nurses.

GUINEA: Red Cross workers collecting bodies believed to be infected with Ebola were attacked on Tuesday, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies spokesman Benoit Carpentier said yesterday.

One worker was recovering after being wounded in the neck in the attack in Forecariah, he added.

Family members of the dead initially set upon the six volunteers before a crowd gathered and threw rocks at the regional health office.

INDONESIA: Former leading Democratic Party member Anas Urbaningrum was sentenced to eight years in jail yesterday for corruption and money-laundering.

A five-member panel at the Corruption Court found him guilty of accepting gratification in arranging contracts for government-funded projects to construction companies.

He was also ordered to either repay the state all of the over £6 million he accepted in bribes or serve two more years behind bars.

ROMANIA: Former prison commander Alexandru Visinescu, who ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison from 1956-63, appeared in court yesterday on charges of torture and causing the deaths of 12 political prisoners.

Mr Visinescu is charged with crimes against humanity, but denies any wrongdoing.

Cosmin Budeanca, the director of a government institute investigating “crimes under communism” called the trial “necessary for society” and a victory for “moral justice.”