• PM says he should have scared public more over need for reforms
    05/29/2007

    Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek says his biggest mistake was not scaring the Czech public enough about what could happen if social, tax and health reforms are not carried out. Speaking at a seminar in the Senate, Mr Topolanek said the situation was dismal and he should have issued a sterner warning to voters when he first unveiled the government's reform plans. The Chamber of Deputies is due to vote on the reform package at the start of next month. If it does not pass, the prime minister says he will push for early elections.

    Meanwhile, the director of the Czech central bank, Zdenek Tuma, said on Tuesday that the reforms were a step in the right direction. However, he said they were a first step towards stabilising the public finances in the short term, and did not guarantee their sustainability in the long term.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Two post-revolution ministers collaborated with StB, says official
    05/29/2007

    Two ministers in the first post-communist Czechoslovak government collaborated with the StB secret police, military intelligence spokesman Ladislav Sticha said on Tuesday. Richard Sacher, who was interior minister, and Miroslav Vacek, who served as defence minister, had ties to the StB's counter-intelligence service, Mr Sticha said. Both men's terms ended by the close of 1990.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Government rapped over lease of fighter planes
    05/29/2007

    The Czech government failed to justify adequately the leasing of 14 Gripen fighter planes three years ago, the Supreme Audit Office has said. Leasing the jets has cost the state around 20 billion CZK (around 1 billion USD). The Defence Ministry has rejected the charge, saying the country needed the planes and it had first wanted 24 of them. The SAO also said there was a lack of pilots trained to fly Gripens as well as suitable technical staff.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Martinu to become police president
    05/29/2007

    Oldrich Martinu is to become the new head of the Czech police, Interior Minister Ivan Langer announced on Tuesdsay. Mr Martinu, who is currently serving as deputy police president, will replace Vladislav Husak; he resigned in March after allegations of impropriety and is now head of the foreigners' police.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech-born Miss World passes "maturita"
    05/29/2007

    Czech-born Miss World Tatana Kucharova has passed her "maturita" school leaving exams. Pravo reported that the 19-year-old blonde was relieved after passing the exams at the Josef Skvorecky secondary school in Prague on Monday. Tatana Kucharova is the first Czech Miss World.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Sparta Prague win Czech football league
    05/29/2007

    Sparta Prague have won the Czech (previously Czechoslovak) football league for the 34th time, after taking all three points in their final game of the season on Monday. The win makes them the only team to achieve a Czech league and cup double since the split of Czechoslovakia. Slavia Prague came second in the league, followed by Mlada Boleslav.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Ceske Budejovice retire jersey in tribute to Poborsky
    05/29/2007

    Ceske Budejovice football club have "retired" the number 8 jersey worn by Karel Poborsky, following the final game of his career on Monday evening. Poborsky, who is co-owner of Ceske Budejovice, played a record 118 times for the Czech national team.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • World's first interactive cinema revived 40 years after debut
    05/29/2007

    Kinoautomat, the Czechoslovak exhibit at Expo 67, is being revived at a Prague cinema on Tuesday night. Viewers have several opportunities to vote on what happens next in Clovek v dome (Man in His House), which has been described as the world's first interactive film. The revival, which runs till June 20, is taking place at Svetozor, the same cinema where the Kinoautomat took place in 1971 before being banned by the communists.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • DNA tests prove 32-year-old woman posed as teenager in child abuse case
    05/28/2007

    Police say DNA tests have confirmed that the person who was taken to a Brno children's home along with a severely abused boy and his brother earlier this month was not a 13-year old girl called Anna but actually 32-year old Barbora Skrlova who was posing as an adopted daughter of Klara Mauerova, now charged with two crimes. Police still have not ruled out that the real Anna might exist and are still searching both for her and Skrlova, who escaped from the children's home and has gone missing.

    According to latest information, the adult members of the family are involved in a religious sect which tried to create "a new deity" by giving 32-year-old Barbora Skrlova a new identity.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Social Democrats to initiate no-confidence vote if Cunek remains in cabinet
    05/28/2007

    The chairman of the opposition Social Democrats, Jiri Paroubek, has said his party would initiate a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek if it happens that Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek is indicted but remains in government. Police suspect Mr Cunek of having taken a bribe of half a million crowns in 2002 when he was mayor of the eastern town of Vsetin. The opposition parties say that Mr Cunek's remaining in government is untenable.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

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