Voting began in Poland's general election Sunday with centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk vying for a landmark second term in a race against the conservative opposition.

Poles vote Sunday in a general election, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk aiming for a landmark second term and pushing a message of prudent economic stewardship which kept the nation out of recession.

Poland braced Saturday for a general election in which centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk aims to win an unprecedented second term, staking his claim as a safe pair of hands in tough economic times.

Seventy-three percent of Poles back tapping into their country's apparently vast shale gas reserves despite warnings that production poses a serious environmental risk, a survey said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A pair of 19th century paintings by Polish Impressionist Julian Falat, looted by the Nazis nearly seven decades ago, were returned to Polish authorities on Thursday in a ceremony in New York.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday his country planned to begin commercial shale gas production from 2014, dismissing environmental concerns while insisting the technologies involved were safe.

Moody's ratings agency downgraded two top French banks in a new lurch for the eurozone crisis on Wednesday which Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski warned could destroy the European Union.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Vandals have defaced a Jewish memorial in eastern Poland by rearranging bushes forming the Star of David into a Nazi swastika, police said on Monday, the latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents in the area.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will exchange its surplus emission permits under the Kyoto Protocol (AAUs) to Japan for the Asian country's energy storage technologies, according to a preliminary agreement between the two, Poland's environment minister said on Monday.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland exhumed on Monday the first victim of last year's plane crash in western Russia, which killed the country's president and 95 others, because of concerns that the Russian autopsy may be faulty.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski on Wednesday vetoed a new legislation that would allow some genetically modified seeds in the country, saying it ran against European Union rules.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Andrzej Lepper, a former Polish deputy prime minister and leader of the small, populist Self-Defense Party, died on Friday, police said, and local media said he may have committed suicide.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich resigned on Friday after a government report chronicled a litany of errors and neglect by the crew of the military plane that crashed in Russia last year killing Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

Errors by the ill-trained crew of Poland's presidential jet caused the crash that killed then head of state Lech Kaczynski, a damning report said Friday, prompting the defence minister to quit.

The Gdansk Shipyard, where the Solidarity movement that ended the communist era in Poland was born, is now trying to lead another Polish revolution ... in offshore wind power.

Poland should turn to offshore wind farms for safer, cheaper energy and more jobs instead of pushing ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power facility by 2020, a study said on Wednesday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday gave his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk a 15-litre cask of wine to toast Poland's six-month European Union presidency.

Poland took the reins of the European Union Friday for six months, winning access to eurozone meetings but conditioning its entry to the 17-member bloc on a lasting solution to the debt crisis.

Polish lawmakers decided Friday to press ahead with work on draft legislation banning abortions altogether, even for women who were raped, are carrying deformed babies or face health risks.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised "energetic engagement" as he took over the rotating presidency of the European Union on Friday and said the 27-country bloc was facing one of its most difficult moments.