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06/19/2007
A total of 346 homosexual couples, 126 in Prague, have entered into registered partnerships since a Czech law made them legal last year. The youngest registered couple is 18 years old; the oldest over the age of 80. In the one year that the law on same-sex registered partnerships has been in effect, three couples have already annulled their "marriage" and three more are waiting for their "divorce" to come through.
The law on registered partnerships allows gays and lesbians to enquire about their partner's state of health, inherit their partner's property, and refuse to testify against their partner in a court of law. They are allowed to raise children but not adopt them.
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06/19/2007
A new opinion poll suggests that the ruling coalition, which is currently struggling with a weak 100 of the 200 seats in the lower house of Parliament, would gain four more seats if elections were held tomorrow. In the poll, conducted by the STEM agency this month, the Civic Democrats would win 74 seats, the Greens 21 seats, and the Christian Democrats nine seats.
The opposition Social Democrats would be allocated 67 seats and the Communists 29. The poll indicates that the Civic Democrats' popularity is on a slight rise, while that of the opposition Social Democrats is on a slight decline - widening the popularity gap between the two largest parties from one to two percent.
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06/18/2007
Alexandr Vondra, a Czech deputy prime minister, says Prague continues to support Poland's fight to hold on to its current voting rights within the European Union. The Czech Republic is the only state openly backing Poland, which has threatened to veto any treaty on the running of the EU at a key conference later this week if it does not get its way. However, Mr Vondra qualified support for Warsaw, saying the voting rights issue was not a Czech priority.
Mr Vondra said he expected the summit to last longer than the planned two days. But he said he thought compromise on a treaty would be reached, adding that there was "no plan B".
The Czech Republic is pushing for the return of some powers from Brussels to member states, and has sent a proposal to fellow members aimed at increasing the powers of national parliaments. However, it stopped short of proposing that national governments be allowed to completely block European legislation.
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06/18/2007
A Prague court on Monday sentenced an Israeli citizen to five years in prison for a grenade attack in the centre of the city three years ago. Yakov Moshajlov is expected to be transferred to a prison in Israel; that was a condition of his extradition to the Czech Republic. Moshajlov, who was born in Russia, threw a grenade under the jeep of the owner of a casino on Na Prikope Street in the middle of the day. Seventeen people sustained minor injuries in the attack, most of them foreign tourists.
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06/18/2007
Barbora Skrlova, who is 32, says she succeeded in making psychologists and doctors believe she was a 13-year-old girl. In a newspaper interview, Skrlova also said she appeared before a judge during adoption proceedings, pretending to be a girl of 13 called Anicka. This contradicts earlier reports that the woman who adopted her, Klara Mauerova, switched the daughter of a family friend for Skrlova for the court hearing. Klara Mauerova and her sister Katerina are in custody on charges of abusing the former's seven-year-old son Ondrej.
After it came to light that Ondrej was being kept in horrendous conditions, the bizarre story of the fraudulent adoption slowly emerged. The family is believed to have been involved in a religious sect.
Meanwhile, Klara Mauerova's ex-husband and other relatives have been forbidden from visiting Ondrej and another brother at a children's home. Officials said they seriously breached agreed visiting conditions.
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06/18/2007
All of the country's ministries are going to carry out "anti-corruption audits" by the end of the summer, as part of a campaign against corruption, the minister of the interior, Ivan Langer, said on Monday. Individual ministers are also planning to co-operate more closely with non-governmental organisations in the anti-corruption field, he said. However, opposition politicians have said it is paradoxical that the cabinet can both fight graft and feature Jiri Cunek, who is under investigation for bribe-taking. Mr Langer countered that the presumption of innocence should be applied to Mr Cunek.
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06/18/2007
A Brno police investigator who last week was charged with distributing child pornography has now been charged with the production and possession of drugs. Home-made opium was found during a search of the 41-year-old officer's home, said a spokesperson for the Brno police. A waitress at an internet café alerted the police after the investigator left a USB stick containing pornographic images of children in one of its computers. The Interior Ministry is now investigating the officer, who was on the force for ten years.
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06/18/2007
A former director of the CzechInvest agency would like to set up a new body, Czechinvent, Euro reported. Radomil Novak told the weekly Czechinvent could support applied research and innovation in the Czech Republic. Last week he discussed its establishment with officials in Prague. Mr Novak is very critical of how his old employer CzechInvest has been dealt with by Trade Minister Martin Riman, accusing the ministry of paralysing it. Around half of the agency's staff have left since Mr Riman sacked Tomas Hruda as director.
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06/18/2007
The Czech Republic have been knocked out in the group stage at football's European Under 21 Championships in the Netherlands. The Czechs were beaten 3:1 by Italy on Sunday evening, but even a win would not have been enough to see them into the semi-finals, as England beat Serbia in the other group game, meaning both of those teams went through. Failure to advance also means the Czech Republic will not appear at next year's Olympic Games.
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06/17/2007
The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, has said he believes a key European Union summit next week will reach agreement on the outlines of a new treaty on running the 27-member organisation. Speaking after talks near Berlin on Sunday with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Mr Topolanek said Prague would only veto efforts to revive the same constitution French and Dutch voters rejected two years ago.
The Czech prime minister also restated his country's desire to see some powers returned from Brussels to member states. On Thursday the Czech Republic sent a proposal to fellow member states aimed at increasing the powers of national parliaments. However, it stopped short of proposing that national governments be allowed to completely block European legislation.
Czech leaders have consistently expressed reservations about any EU constitution. Prague is also supporting Poland's fight to prevent bigger states losing some voting rights.
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