Daily news summary

Minister Chovanec says he will resign if police got order to protect Chinese demonstrators

Interior Minister Milan Chovanec has said he would resign from office if an investigation into the security operation surrounding the recent visit by the Chinese president should reveal that the police received an order to implement a selective approach in favour of Chinese demonstrators. Speaking in a debate on TV Prima the interior minister said individual officers may have been over-zealous in performing their duty but he ruled out that they had received orders to act as they did. Czech human rights protesters who were detained in street skirmishes with large groups of often aggressive Chinese nationals out to greet their president claim that the police invariably intervened against them despite the fact that they were the victims of an attack by the Chinese. The incidents are being investigated.

Kalousek says government should help refugees who were promised asylum in Generation 21 relocation project

TOP 09 leader Miroslav Kalousek has appealed on the government to consider the plight of the 60 Iraqi Christian refugees who were scheduled to settle in the Czech Republic within a relocation project initiated and financed by the NGO Generation 21. The project was unexpectedly scrapped last Thursday after 25 of the 89 refugees already here gave up their asylum status and left for Germany and another eight returned to their homeland. Kalousek said that the 60 refugees who had been promised asylum should not be made to pay for the behavior of a group of their compatriots.

Slavětice holding referendum on Dukovany expansion

The inhabitants of Slavětice located not far from the country’s oldest power plant Dukovany are voting in a referendum on the planned construction of a fifth unit and a possible nuclear waste dump in the vicinity. A no vote could mean that the town would go against an earlier agreement with the power utility ČEZ and lose its annual 2.2 million crown subsidy. Voting takes place between 9am and 9pm on Sunday. A fifth reactor at Dukovany is part of the government long term energy strategy.

Lack of IT specialists on Czech labour market

There is a severe lack of IT specialists on the Czech labour market, Czech Radio reported on Sunday citing leading personnel companies. According to the head of ManpowerGroup Jaroslava Rezlerova the situation has been deteriorating in recent years and the country now lacks around 100,000 IT specialists. Prague has 400 vacancies despite the fact that starting salaries in the field are on average 15,000 crowns higher than in other areas. This is a common trend across Europe which currently lacks 700,000 IT specialists.

Close to half of Czechs have high cholesterol levels

Close to half of Czechs have high cholesterol levels seriously increasing their risk of having a heart attack or developing heart disease, Czech Radio reported citing the results of a nationwide survey on the health of the population. According to doctors this is most commonly caused by a poor diet. Sixty percent of deaths in the country are related to heart disease.

Anděl music awards handed out in Prague

David Koller was named singer of the year at the Czech music industry's annual Anděl awards ceremony on Saturday night, and his album ČeskosLOVEnsko was voted Album of the year. The female singer of the year award went to Klára Vytisková. Kryštof picked up the Band of the year award and Barbora Poláková was voted Newcomer of the year, her song Nafrněná winning the award for the best song of 2015. Michal Pavlíček was inducted into the Czech music hall of fame. In their speeches the artists repeatedly criticized President Miloš Zeman.

Meteorologists predict unseasonably warm weather in coming weeks

The coming two weeks are expected to bring above-average temperatures, according to a monthly forecast published by the Czech Hydro-meteorological Office. The second and third week in April should bring highs of 20 degrees Celsius. Last Tuesday monitoring stations registered the warmest day of the year with the temperature in Karvine hitting 26.9 degrees. Century old records for that day were broken in many parts of the country.