THE dominoes fell, one by one, all 1,000 of them, covering 1.5km along the path of the 43km fence that kept Berliners imprisoned for 28 years.

A “HUMBLED” US President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize yesterday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and co-operation rather than unilateralism.

PASSING the Lisbon Treaty is crucial to continued peace, security, and progress in the EU, former Polish president and solidarity trade union leader Lech Walesa has said.

Czechs and Poles were mixed in their reaction to the US decision to cancel a missile defence shield based in their countries today.

Opponents accused President Hugo Chavez of trying to silence his critics today after associates of Lech Walesa said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate would not attend a pro-democracy forum in Venezuela.

Former Polish leader Lech Walesa today finished giving evidence in the trial of the country’s ex-military ruler General Wojciech Jaruzelski for his part in the murder of 44 protesters in 1970.

POLAND and Ukraine will host the European soccer championship in 2012 after UEFA awarded them the tournament ahead of Italy and another joint bid from Hungary and Croatia yesterday.

Lech Walesa, founder of Poland’s Solidarity movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has undergone heart surgery in a Milan hospital, the Polish embassy to Italy said today.

Solidarity founder and former President Lech Walesa examined dozens of files today that communist-era Polish secret police gathered against him while he was a dissident leader in the 1970s and 80s.

POLAND’S centre-right parties, celebrating a crushing victory yesterday over the ruling left, faced tough talks on forming a coalition amid divisions over the scope of market reforms.

Solidarity founder and former Polish President Lech Walesa said he will not run for presidency in the upcoming elections, the Slovakian Sme newspaper reported today.

WHEN there is nothing left to say, some fool will always say it. That was a message that used to hang in the newsroom of RTÉ.

THE hero of Polish democracy Lech Walesa said yesterday that the ailing Pope might yet surprise the world with his longevity, as church-goers from across Jean Paul II’s homeland prayed and lit candles for his health.

Wedged between troubled Ukraine and the West, Poland has plunged into the disputed Ukrainian presidential election in an attempt to mediate – a sign of anxiety over the prospect of instability and rising Russian influence so close to home.

UKRAINE’S highest court yesterday blocked the inauguration of the country’s Moscow-backed prime minister as president, giving a fresh impetus to his liberal opponent who has led street protests to overturn his election.

The Ukrainian presidential election result was frozen today until the Supreme Court considers an appeal by the opposition candidate, who claims the vote was rigged.

THE hero of the Polish Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, yesterday made an impassioned plea to the Irish people to vote Yes to Nice this Saturday.