On June 22, Czech Radio employees are on strike. The operation of RPI is limited.Further details

  • Former Union Banka managers released from custody
    01/14/2005

    The Ostrava state attorney on Friday released from custody four former managers of the bankrupt Union Banka. They have been charged with breach of trust in property administration and granting disadvantageous loans, which stripped the bank of three billion crowns. The state attorney said that the three months custody period had expired and there was no longer reason to fear that they would try to influence witnesses. According to investigators, the bank managers granted risky loans to their friends in the period between 1999 and 2003. If convicted, they face a sentence of up to eight years in prison.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Drug dealers hoping to be released on Thai amnesty
    01/14/2005

    Two Czech drug dealers who were sentenced to 50 years in prison in Thailand for smuggling heroin, now hope to be released on the grounds of an amnesty declared there last year. The two men each spent several years in a Thai prison before being transferred to a Czech prison last year. One of the men is reported to be in seriously bad health.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Number of missing Czechs in Southeast Asia drops to ten
    01/13/2005

    The number of Czechs still missing in Southeast Asia has dropped to 10, after a tourist in Burma contacted her family on Thursday. Six of the missing are believed to be dead and only one Czech casualty has been confirmed so far. The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, DNA samples of each missing Czech will be on the next plane to Thailand.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Government asks parliament to extend Iraq mission
    01/13/2005

    The Czech government has asked parliament to approve extending the mission of just under a hundred Czech military police stationed in Iraq. They are due to return at the end of next month, but the government now recommends that they stay till the end of the year. They are based in southern Iraq where they are helping to train Iraqi police. President Vaclav Klaus has said that he supports the extension, which will cost around 175 million crowns (just over 7 million US dollars) from the Defence Ministry budget.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Constitutional Court rules Opocno Chateau is to be returned to the state
    01/13/2005

    The Constitutional Court has overruled a district and regional court, which returned the state-owned Opocno Chateau to the Colloredo-Mansfeld family. The aristocratic family, which has been fighting a ten-year court battle to win back the property, says it will appeal against the ruling at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg.

    The Opocno Chateau and surrounding grounds in East Bohemia were seized by the Nazis in 1942 and later nationalised by the post-war Czechoslovak state. The Colloredo-Mansfeld family argue they were denied the right to claim back the property because they were wrongly labelled Nazi collaborators after the war.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Civic Democrats put EU Constitution referendum proposal to parliament
    01/13/2005

    The right-of-centre opposition Civic Democrats officially forwarded their proposed European constitution referendum bill to the Senate on Thursday. The bill counts on a referendum on the European Union's first ever constitution being held by the end of this year.

    The bill is opposed by the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats who would like to see the referendum held at the same time as the parliamentary elections in 2006. They argue that a separate referendum would cost the state a further 380 million Czech crowns (just under 16 million US dollars).
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Police break up drug ring
    01/13/2005

    The Czech Police say they have broken up an organised gang, which was planning to create a new route to smuggle drugs into the Czech Republic. One of the five arrested gang members is a Serbian national who used to be a judge in former Yugoslavia and was granted asylum in the Czech Republic in 1994. The group was allegedly dealing in cocaine and the locally-produced amphetamine pervitine. If found guilty of drug dealing they can each face up to fifteen years in prison.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Brno prison inmates donate pocket money to Tsunami victims
    01/13/2005

    A group of forty prisoners at a prison near Brno, South Moravia, have begun collecting money from their fellow inmates to help the Tsunami victims in Southeast Asia. Donations, amounting to 10,000 Czech crowns (a little over 400 US dollars), have already been sent to the accounts of various Czech humanitarian organisations. A prison spokeswoman said on Thursday the inmates were donating some of their pocket money, which they use to buy food at the prison canteen.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Czech Republic almost doubles immediate aid to Southeast Asia
    01/12/2005

    The Czech government is to release another half a million US dollars in immediate aid for Southeast Asia, on top of the 650,000 dollars already approved. It made the announcement at a United Nations donor conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

    Almost nine million dollars has also been earmarked for long-term reconstruction projects. Meanwhile, the Czech public has donated nearly 9.5 million US dollars towards relief in the devastated region.

    The number of Czechs still missing in Southeast Asia now stands at 11, with seven of them believed to have died. Only one Czech casualty has been confirmed so far.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Government discussing extending Czech Army stay in Iraq by another year
    01/12/2005

    The government is discussing extending the stay of Czech military police in Iraq by one more year. The Defence Ministry says the Czech contingent would continue to train Iraqi police, and would remain at its present size of around 90 officers. Under their current mandate, the Czech soldiers would return home at the end of February.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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