It appeared to guarantee that Poland will continue moving in the direction of economic reform, and preparing itself for membership of the European Union and Nato. Mr Cimoszewicz, a 45-year-old lawyer and former justice minister, was one of several candidates for the premiership following Mr Oleksy's dramatic resignation last week amidst protestations of innocence. The nomination of Mr Cimoszewicz, which was almost certain to be accepted by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, marked the end of a week of hard bargaining between leaders of the former Communist Social Democratic Alliance (SLD) and its junior coalition partner, the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL). The governing coalition partners in Poland yesterday put forward a former Communist, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, for the post of prime minister following the resignation of Jozef Oleksy over allegations that he had spied for the KGB. A record 13 senators have announced they will not seek re-election, eight of them Democrats and five Republicans..

Oregon saved $1m (pounds 660,000) on the exercise.The ranks of congressmen not seeking re-election swelled further yesterday, as Charlie Rose, the influential North Carolina Democrat and a champion of the beleaguered tobacco industry, announced his retirement after 24 years Life in the minority was "not as much fun", he said He is the 38th House member and 25th Democrat to step down. Those who preferred to wait until Tuesday itself could leave their ballots in 160 "drop-boxes" across the state which were sealed at the 8pm deadline.Despite predictions that public interest would plummet, turn-out topped 60 per cent, compared with 41 per cent in the 1994 congressional elections, and exceptionally high for a by-election. The result gives the Democrats 47 senators to the Republicans' 53.More heartening still for Democrats, Mr Wyden pitched his campaign on the very issues Mr Clinton will highlight this autumn - the protection of education, the environment and free medical services for the poor and elderly, and a "safe, legal and rare" approach to abortion.Oregon, moreover, continues the trend visible at the off-year elections of November 1995, when the heavily favoured Republicans failed to seize control of state legislatures in Virginia and Maine and the governorship of Kentucky.The Wyden win is another pointer that the American public feels that the congressional conservatives led by Newt Gingrich, the House Speaker, have gone too far, especially in their intransigence in the budget dispute, which caused two government shutdowns.The Oregon poll also seems to vindicate postal voting, permitted in the three-week period before election day. It was held to find a successor to Bob Packwood, who resigned in disgrace from the Senate last summer after charges of sexual harassment. Mr Wyden defeated his Republican opponent, the conservative businessman Gordon Smith, by a margin of 17,000 votes, or 1 per cent of the total ballot. Despite the closeness of the outcome, the White House and Democratic strategists were exultant yesterday, hailing it as further proof of the unpopularity of the Republican-controlled Congress, and another sign that President Clinton will win a second term. The narrow victory by Ron Wyden, a liberal congressman, came in the first US election conducted entirely by post.

President Bill Clinton and his party received an early election-year fillip yesterday as the Democrats won a vacant Senate seat in Oregon, breaking a three-decade Republican monopoly in the state and rekindling hopes of recapturing at least partial control of Congress in November. "As you well know, she is well liked both in this country and in America," Mr Farrakhan said of Mrs Mandela, who is estranged from her husband.. Their rights were protected under the constitution, and there was no plan to eradicate their language. Schools in Afrikaans areas could continue instruction in Afrikaans but had to provide classes in other languages where it was necessary.He said Afrikaners had to be careful not to let efforts to protect their language and culture be seen as an attempt to drag the country back into the era of white domination.n Johannesburg - Louis Farrakhan, leader of the militant US black Muslim group, Nation of Islam, met Winnie Mandela yesterday and praised her contribution to the anti-apartheid movement, AP reports. The government is committed to integrating once-exclusive white institutions, while Afrikaners resent their loss of privilege.Mr Mandela yesterday reassured representatives of 13 Afrikaans women's groups in Pretoria that Afrikaners had no reason to worry. The school would admit black children but only in numbers the school could accommodate, and parents wanted guarantees they would respect the school's "Afrikaner, Christian character".Non-racial education was introduced after all-race elections in April 1994 but some schools, known as "Model C", are still under white control because parents in effect own the schools.The row over the school, about 120 miles north of Pretoria, is the latest test of wills between the government of President Nelson Mandela and right-wing Afrikaners over the pace and form of change.

But we are suspected because we turned away blacks," he said. There is no guarantee if the government forces the school to take children against its will that these people might not react."Mr van der Merwe said the school had not refused entry to children because they were black, but because it was full. "We have turned down applications from white and black students. But there can be, as you know, in any Afrikaner community, extremists. The excuse now of protecting culture and language is nothing more than a smokescreen for racism."If the school does not admit all colours, the Northern Province will get a court order to force it to do so. An earlier deadline yesterday was apparently extended at the request of the school board of governors, to help to cool tempers.Some people fear confrontation in Potgietersrus may end in bloodshed and harden attitudes between black South Africans and Afrikaners. "So far we have worked very hard and succeeded in keeping this a peaceful struggle," said Daan van der Merwe, a spokesman for the governors "The parents do not want violence.

"Those three children were enrolled by the school's principal himself," said a spokesman, Jack Mokobi. "In the past, the school has accepted white, English-speaking students without so much as a peep. They deny racist motives, and insist they are trying to protect the school's cultural and religious standards from non-Afrikaans-speaking children who might flood in and lower the quality of education. The provincial government is not buying it. Last Wednesday the pupils found their way blocked by 200 white parents screaming threats in Afrikaans. The parents have maintained a vigil at the gates of the Potgietersrus Primary School ever since. That is why, 50 years later, we are still coming across such things.".