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03/17/2007
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and his Slovak counterpart Jan Kubis agreed in Prague on Friday to jointly continue efforts to obtain visa-free admission for Czech and Slovak citizens visiting the United States. The US still has to take several steps towards changing its visa regime that could result in the lifting of entry visas for Czechs and Slovaks, Mr Schwarzenberg said. Earlier this week, US senators approved the proposal; now the legislation will be debated in the House of Representatives.
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03/17/2007
Around one hundred right-wing extremists demonstrated in the Moravian town of Blansko on Saturday, monitored by around fifty Czech police. The demonstrators reportedly gathered to protest against a small Mongolian minority of around four hundred in the town, many of whom are employed at a local firm. One of the extremists was reportedly arrested for giving the banned "Hitler salute". The protest was otherwise without incident.
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03/17/2007
Two Czechs were seriously injured in the district of Prague 12 on Saturday when their small plane crashed after an unsuccessful takeoff. One of the two was taken to hospital by helicopter. Reasons behind the failed manoeuvre and the crash are not yet known.
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03/17/2007
Czech tennis player Martin Damm and doubles partner Leander Paes of India have made the doubles final at Indian Wells, in the United States. On Friday the two defeated the Swedish-Belarusian duo of Bjorkman and Mirnyj 12:10 in a so-called supertie-break. Damm and his partner will now face Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel for the championship title.
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03/16/2007
The wider Christian Democrat leadership - 53 out of 56 members on Friday - expressed support for embattled party leader Jiri Cunek, facing corruption charges. Mr Cunek himself abstained from taking part in the vote. Mr Cunek, who is also a deputy prime minister, has been accused of accepting a bribe of 500,000 crowns. He has so far refused to step down. Earlier this week Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that mounting public pressure was likely to eventually force Mr Cunek to leave the cabinet.
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03/16/2007
In related news, the east Moravian town of Vsetin, where Jiri Cunek was mayor, has denied a story by Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny suggesting inappropriate dealings over 4.5 million crowns (around 250,000 US dollars). The sum was received as a down payment, the daily writes, in the town's sale of its majority stake in its professional ice hockey club. A first payment of 4.5 million crowns was paid out after the sale was agreed with a Russian company, but according to Lidove Noviny the funds later disappeared. Town Hall representatives have dismissed the story as false, saying they did not receive the money at all and will consider suing Lidove Noviny for libel.
Vsetin hockey club chairman Oldrich Stefl has told the media that the 4.5 million, roughly a fifth of the agreed price, were received by the club but invested. The deal then fell through and procedures were begun on the cancellation of the contract. According to Mr Stefl, negotiations with the Russian buyer on the return of the funds will now depend on the final cancellation of the sale.
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03/16/2007
The West Bohemian town of Pilsen has indicated it will not be able to meet a request by the interior ministry to find homes for three families of Cuban refugees seeking asylum in the Czech Republic. The town made its decision on the grounds that it had only one available property in its housing fund, meaning that not all of the families could be covered. A condition in the request - put forward by Interior Minister Ivan Langer after meeting with representatives of the US Embassy in Prague - was that the three families would be housed in close proximity. Last year two apartments in Pilsen were made available for nationals from Kazakhstan; Pilsen has provided asylum seekers with nineteen apartments since 1995.
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03/16/2007
Social Democrat deputy chairman Zdenek Skromach has indicated that he has no intention of challenging current party head Jiri Paroubek for leadership of the Social Democrats, holding a three-day party conference to choose or reconfirm party leadership next week. At the same time, Mr Skromach has stated that he hopes to be re-elected as a deputy chairman. In the past the former minister for labour and social affairs was seen as a contender for top post of the Social Democrats. Two years ago he ran but lost to former prime minister Stanislav Gross. Mr Skromach's decision now means that current leader Jiri Paroubek will not face any challengers: the party votes next Friday.
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03/16/2007
Social Democrat deputy Bohuslav Sobotka has denied reports in the media that his party is weighing whether or not to lodge a criminal complaint against former party chairman Milos Zeman for signing an apparently disadvantageous contract ten years ago. The party has been dealing with demands by lawyer Zdenek Altner, who says he is owed almost 20 billion crowns in overdue payments by the party, for helping it in a past legal case. Mr Sobotka has stated on the internet that reports until now had been "pure speculation". He has indicated that the Social Democratic Party was looking into ways of dealing with the Altner case.
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03/16/2007
Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has said the Czech Republic should sign up to the International Criminal Court and end what he has called the "barely sustainable position" of being the only EU state not to have done so. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Mr Topolanek said the Czech Republic should sign up to the treaty by the time it takes over the EU's presidency in 2009. MPs from Mr Topolanek's own Civic Democratic Party voted down a proposal to sign up to the statute creating the Hague-based court in 2001 because of fears that it would leave Czechs open to international prosecution. The Czech foreign ministry has admitted to the country's current position being an embarrassment.
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