• Chamber of Deputies approves state budget for 2007
    12/13/2006

    The lower house of Parliament has approved the state budget for 2007 with a state income of 949.5 billion crowns (over 45 billion US dollars) but a 91.3 billion crown (an estimated 4.3 billion US dollars) deficit. Deputies from the Civic Democratic, Social Democratic, and Christian Democratic parties voted in favour of the budget, while the Communists and the Greens opposed it.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Social Democrats suspect deputy Melcak has been bribed by the Civic Democrats
    12/13/2006

    The Social Democrats suspect that one of their deputies has been bribed by the Civic Democrats, who are in the process of forming a new government. Deputy Milos Melcak recently left the deputies' group in parliament saying he was facing pressure from party colleagues for voicing that the party should go into opposition. Mr Melcak has not ruled out that he might vote for the new government of Prime Minister and Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek regardless of his party's stance.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Police break up organised gang of people smugglers
    12/13/2006

    Police say they have broken up an international organised gang of people smugglers. The gang from Vietnam, China, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are suspected of having smuggled at least 700 illegal migrants from Asia to Europe since 2004. They are believed to have received a total of around 200 million crowns for the service.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Anti-Temelin activists threaten to block six border crossings
    12/13/2006

    A group of Austrian environmentalists are threatening to block up to six Czech-Austrian border crossings this weekend. The activists will stage the blockade if the Austrian parliament fails to approve a resolution that favours filing a law suit against the Czech Republic over the Temelin nuclear power plant. The activists say the Temelin plant in south Bohemia - just 50 km from the Austrian border - is not safe and should never have been put into operation.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Ruzyne airport records 11 millionth passenger
    12/13/2006

    Prague's Ruzyne airport has handled a record number of passengers this year. It passed the 11 million mark for the first time on Wednesday. The airport expects to handle 11.5 million passengers by the end of the year; last year the total number of passengers reached 10.8 million. The airport launched its new 10 billion crown (over 470 million US dollars) North-2 terminal in January.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Czech crown reaches new record high to euro
    12/13/2006

    The Czech crown reached a new record high with an exchange rate of 27.86 crowns to the euro on Wednesday. The crown also firmed to the US dollar with an exchange rate of 21.00 crowns to the dollar.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Former head of police intervention unit injured in Prague shooting
    12/12/2006

    A shoot-out in the centre of Prague on Monday night has left a 47 year old foreign national dead and a police officer injured. The injured officer, Vladimir Ustyanovic, is the former head of the north-Moravian police intervention unit. The police are still investigating what led to the gunfight but suspect that the motive was jealousy. The foreigner first shot at the police and then turned the gun on himself.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Police investigation into hospital serial killings could have started earlier
    12/12/2006

    A police investigation into a number of mysterious hospital deaths between May and September was launched three weeks later than it should have been. A spokesperson for the East Bohemian Police said on Tuesday that the officer responsible for distributing tasks failed to recognise the gravity of the hospital's criminal complaint. A former nurse at the hospital has since confessed to murdering eight patients and attempting to kill several more with the blood-thinning drug heparin.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Otakar Motejl re-elected Ombudsman
    12/12/2006

    Otakar Motejl has been re-elected Ombudsman by the lower house of Parliament. Mr Motejl stood against three candidates put forward by the president - former rector of the Czech Technical University in Prague Jiri Witzany, human rights activist John Bok, and senator Jitka Seitlova. Mr. Motejl is already serving a six year term which ends on December 18.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Czech-Slovak border controls to be upgraded if Bratislava fails Schengen controls
    12/12/2006

    The Czech Republic may erect a guarded border with Slovakia, ending free travel inside former Czechoslovakia, unless Bratislava tightens controls on its frontier with Ukraine, Czech Ambassador to Brussels Jan Kohout said on Tuesday. The two European Union newcomers want to enter the EU's borderless Schengen area at the end of 2007, but before Slovakia can join it must upgrade controls on the border with non-EU member Ukraine. If Bratislava fails the Schengen control test, the Czech Republic would not be admitted to the EU zone of passport-free travel unless it imposed checks at the Slovak border.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

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