About 10,000 people have marched through the city of Katowice in southern Poland to protest at government moves to close unprofitable coal mines. The government of Prime Minister Lezek Miller is planning to close seven coal pits - making about 35,000 of Poland's 140,000 miners redundant. The demonstrators carried burning torches and blocked traffic, before gathering outside the provincial governor's office. They chanted "thieves", and erected seven wooden crosses to symbolise the fate of the mines. Large groups of steel workers and nurses, who are demanding higher salaries and more money for health care, also joined in the Katowice protest.

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