Poland looking into reports of CIA prisons

Warsaw, Poland Poland’s prime minister said Saturday he has ordered an investigation into whether the CIA ran secret prisons for terror suspects in the country – an allegation the government repeatedly has denied.

Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said a “detailed” probe would be conducted.

More than a half-dozen investigations are under way into whether European countries may have hosted secret U.S.-run prisons in which al-Qaida suspects were allegedly tortured, and whether European airports and airspace were used for alleged CIA flights transporting prisoners to countries where torture is practiced.

Poland’s outgoing President Aleksander Kwasniewski reiterated last week that “there are no such prisons or such prisoners on Polish territory.” But the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported Saturday that airplanes belonging to either the CIA or FBI landed at least five times at the Szczytno-Szymany airport in Poland since December 2002.

Transplant recipient says she has no regrets

London The French woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant says she was amazed to see her new face in the mirror and has no regrets about the operation, a British newspaper reported Saturday.

The patient, whose identity has not been disclosed, underwent the groundbreaking operation last month in which doctors grafted a nose, chin and lips from a brain-dead donor onto her face. The woman was disfigured earlier this year when mauled by her dog.

“When I looked at my new face I knew straightaway that it was me,” Britain’s Daily Mail quoted the 38-year-old patient as saying. “It was amazing to see a nose and mouth on my face again.”

The woman said she still had no feeling in her face, as the nerves were not yet working correctly, the Daily Mail reported. Doctors hoped feeling would return in six months to a year.

Pakistan extends ban on making, flying kites

Lahore, Pakistan Pakistan’s Supreme Court has extended a ban on making, selling and flying kites that it imposed two months ago after ruling the sport had become increasingly deadly, an official said Saturday.

While the court was hearing the case, which it decided on Friday, police swung batons and lobbed tear gas shells outside the building to disperse about 500 kite-makers and kite-flying enthusiasts who were trying to attend the proceedings.

Lahore, the province capital, is the site of an annual kite-flying festival in which tens of thousands of people fly kites from rooftops and sports fields. The sport sometimes turns deadly when people fall from roofs or are wounded by metal-lined strings.

Russia launches English-language TV

Moscow Russia’s new government-funded, English-language satellite TV channel began broadcasts Saturday as Moscow seeks to polish its image abroad.

With a staff of 344 journalists and a $30 million budget, Russia Today will be broadcast 24 hours a day in North America, Europe and Asia. The program is also available for Russians through subscriptions to a premium satellite package.

Critics have dismissed the project as Kremlin-funded propaganda launched at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin has come under increasing criticism from abroad for backsliding on democracy.