• Ceske Budejovice barracks named monument, thwarting plans for shopping centre
    02/04/2005

    The Marianske military barracks in the south Bohemian town of Ceske Budejovice has been declared a national monument by the Culture Ministry. The move looks likely to spell the end of plans to build a new shopping and office centre on the site. Officials in the town have welcomed the decision.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Novak advances to quarter-finals in first tournament of year
    02/04/2005

    The Czech men's tennis number one, Jiri Novak, has reached the quarter-finals of the Millennium International Championships in Raleigh, North Carolina, after beating Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in two sets on Friday. It is Novak's first tournament of the season; the 29-year-old took January off to spend time with his family.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Eastern EU deputies demand ban on communist symbols
    02/03/2005

    European Parliament members from Eastern Europe are calling for a ban on communist symbols such as the hammer and sickle if the European Union decides to outlaw Nazi symbols, such as the swastika. Lawmakers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia said that any such ban should also cover communist symbols because of the killings and torture suffered by people in the former Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern Bloc. The deputies wrote to the EU's Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini to press their demand.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • President signs bill limiting movement of some asylum seekers
    02/03/2005

    President Vaclav Klaus has signed a law restricting the movement of some unsuccessful asylum seekers in the Czech Republic. The law prevents foreigners whose application for Czech asylum has been rejected from leaving the refugee facility for some time until they are transported to a facility in another EU country which can assess their asylum application. These asylum seekers will be allowed to leave the refugee centre only in clearly specified cases, as, for instance to see a doctor or arrange documents for their asylum application. A group of Senators object that the law is at variance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, and they are planning to turn to the Constitutional court in this respect.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Tests confirm 17th BSE case in Czech Republic, 300 cows to be killed
    02/03/2005

    Tests have proved that a four-year-old cow from a farm in the eastern Jihlava district was infected with mad cow disease or BSE. The state veterinary office has announced it is the 17th BSE case in the Czech Republic, and some 300 cows will have to be killed in a preventive measure. The first BSE case occurred in the Czech Republic in June 2001. Since then all slaughtered animals over 30 months of age have had to be tested for BSE.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech company to withdraw anti-semitic television advertisement
    02/03/2005

    The Czech branch of the garden tools company Mountfield has decided to withdraw a TV commercial featuring a miserly orthodox Jew after Israel's ambassador to the Czech Republic complained it promoted anti-Semitism. The commercial for a sale at Mountfield's stores featured an orthodox Jew happily rubbing his hands together at the announcement of price reductions. The company defended itself saying the commercial promoting their radical price reductions featured a prudent shopper. The commercial will be taken off the air from February 7. The advertisement had been screened on all four of the country's terrestrial television channels since January.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Eastern European currencies hit highs against the euro
    02/03/2005

    The Czech crown passed the key psychological barrier of 30 crowns to the euro on Thursday, hitting the highest point for two and a half years of 29.95 crowns to the single European currency in morning trading. Vis-à-vis the US dollar, the crown is stable, trading around 23.02 crowns. Analysts explain the development by investors' expectations of strong December trade figures being published on Friday. Other Eastern European currencies strengthened sharply against the euro on Thursday as well, leading the Slovak central bank to intervene in the market to weaken its currency.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Goalkeeper Petr Cech, 22, sets Premiership record
    02/03/2005

    The Czech international football goalkeeper, Petr Cech, has set a new record for minutes gone without conceding a goal in England's prestigious Premier League. On Wednesday Cech, who - at 22 - is young for a top-flight goalkeeper, extended the Premiership record to 781 minutes when he kept another clean sheet for his club Chelsea. The Pilsen-born player also holds the Czech league record of 903 minutes, which he set while at Sparta Prague.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • President Klaus asks Constitutional Court to evaluate European Constitution
    02/02/2005

    President Vaclav Klaus has asked the Czech Constitutional Court to evaluate whether the European Constitution complies with the Czech constitution. Mr Klaus on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Court, Pavel Rychetsky, asking whether the ratification of the EU constitution ought to be preceded by amendments to the Czech constitution.

    President Klaus has been keen to warn Czech citizens of the implications of ratifying the European Constitution, saying it would limit the sovereignty of individual EU member states, especially smaller countries like the Czech Republic. The constitution has also been criticised by the centre-right opposition Civic Democrat and Communist parties.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Minimum wage to be lowered to motivate employment
    02/02/2005

    The Cabinet has decided to lower the minimum wage to motivate people into preferring lower paid jobs to unemployment benefits. The minimum monthly wage, which currently stands at 4,300 Czech crowns (some 180 US dollars), is to be reduced to 2,870 crowns (120 US dollars). If approved by Parliament and signed by the President, the new minimum could be introduced as early as January 2006.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

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