Belgian group KBC will sell its Polish insurance unit Warta for EUR 770 million to Germany’s third-biggest insurer Talanx International, Talanx said on its website Friday, announcing a transaction which will significantly change the balance in eastern Europe’s largest insurance market.

Several Polish government websites, including that of the parliament and the prime minister, appear to have been disrupted over the weekend by online activists.

Poland plans to conclude privatization of 290 state-controlled companies by the end of 2013, with some firms from the financial and energy sectors to be subject to partial privatization, Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski told a press conference.

Janusz Palikot, the leader of a new left-wing party Palikot Movement (RP) threatened to smoke a joint in parliament as part of his campaign to legalize cannabis possession, but after Sejm Speaker Ewa Kopacz notified the prosecutor's office about an attempt to commit crime he lit marijuana laced incense instead.

Poland's central bank (NBP) management is ready to participate in bilateral loan for the International Monetary Fund but final decision whether to grant the loan will be made once terms of deal with IMF are set, the central bank said in a press statement on Friday.

The Polish central city of Lodz was awarded 43rd place on the list of places worth visiting in 2012 published by the New York Times.

Warsaw University of Technology Business School (PW) and Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) were listed as one of the best universities in Central Eastern Europe according in the Eduniversal rating agency’s report.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Friday that he would sign a much-discussed new subsidized drug law as soon as possible.

Poland will re-launch its search for a strategic investor for listed fuel group Lotos and will consider both regional and domestic scenarios, Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski told a conference.

Insurance companies can breathe a sigh of relief after the Supreme Court issued a justification to its recent ruling on the obligation to reimburse the costs of renting a replacement car after an accident, the daily Puls Biznesu writes.

President Bronislaw Komorowski is likely to sign into law the amended legislation on pension indexation, presidential minister Irena Woycicka has told PAP news agency.

Poland considers changes in the draft of the new European fiscal pact as going in a good direction, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said at a news conference.

An annual festival of alternative music “Off Festiwal” held in the Lower Silesian capital – Katowice has been awarded the Best Medium Festival at the Third European Festival Awards in Groningen, Holland.

The government of PM Donald Tusk is facing a wave of protests against some of the proposed reforms, including retirement age increase and mineable assets' tax, the daily Rzeczpospolita writes.

Poland's economy would suffer EUR 1.1 billion burden related to the reduction of CO2 emission, excluding costs of CO2 emission rights, if the 2020 reduction target was raised to 25% from 20%, the European Commission estimates in a draft report, PAP news agency writes.

BRE Ubezpieczenia, insurance arm of BRE Bank, will launch direct sales via smartphones and tablets within days, starting from travel insurance products, CEO Pawel Zylm said as cited by the daily Puls Biznesu.