Poland's defense minister said Wednesday that Warsaw, a major contributor of troops for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, would roughly halve its contingent to 500 soldiers by May.

Poland had previously planned to maintain 1,000 troops in Afghanistan until the end of the year as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Poland's nascent nationalist movement RN said Tuesday it would put forward candidates for the first time ever at the 2014 European Parliament elections.

The bloc is made up of dozens of small nationalist, ultra-Catholic and euroskeptic groups that joined forces last year with an eye on the vote in May.

Wojciech Kilar, a symphonic composer who gained fame writing film scores for "The Pianist" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula," was hailed as a glorious figure in Polish and European music at his funeral on Saturday.

Poland's First Lady Anna Komorowska and Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski joined musicians and hundreds of Kilar's fans during the ceremonies at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Katowice, the composer's hometown, during which his music was played.

A drunk driver killed six pedestrians, including one child, on Wednesday in Poland, local police said.

The man lost control of his vehicle and careered into a group of pedestrians on the pavement, killing five people on the spot.

Lech Walesa, Poland's anti-communist icon, on Friday accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of being "unreasonable and shortsighted" in tightening benefit rules for migrants from eastern EU states.

"Britain earned a lot (of money) on Poles finishing off communism, he (Cameron) shouldn't forget it and he should tally it all up," Walesa told Agence France Presse, pointing to the economic boom sparked by the reunification of Europe after the demise of communism in 1989.

Poland said Friday it would send a manned military transport aircraft to back French troops in the Central African Republic in February.

"We will give France logistical support with a military transport aircraft and service crew," of 50 soldiers starting on February 1, 2014 for three months," Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on his official Twitter feed.

Icy winter storms with hurricane-force winds battering northern Europe claimed four more lives in Poland, where some 350,000 homes remained without power, authorities said Saturday.

Hundreds of vehicles were stuck in the snow on Poland's roads, while air traffic was also seriously affected, the administration ministry said.

The European Court of Human Rights Tuesday heard claims that Poland had turned a blind eye to the torture of two Guantanamo-bound prisoners of the CIA on its soil.

Lawyers for Abu Zubaydah, a 42-year-old Palestinian, and Saudi Arabian national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 48, told the court that Warsaw authorized the U.S. intelligence agency to detain their clients in Poland for several months in 2002-03.

The leaders of France and Poland on Monday condemned violence in Ukraine and called for dialogue between the government and pro-EU demonstrators, the French presidency said.

French President Francois Hollande discussed the crisis with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk by telephone, a statement from Hollande's office said.

Eastern European foreign ministers warned Friday that British plans to restrict migrants' rights to unemployment benefits could damage the European Union.

The foreign ministers of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said free movement was a "cornerstone" of EU integration, dismissing British fears that migrants from the region could be a drain on resources.