News

A court in the Bahamas has confirmed an earlier ruling that the country can extradite Irish financier of Czech extraction Viktor Kozeny to the United States where he is facing corruption charges over his business activities in Azerbaijan. Mr Kozeny and his defence counsels said instantly that they would appeal the verdict. Viktor Kozeny (43) was one of the chief protagonists of the Czechoslovak voucher privatisation in the early 1990s. He later came under serious suspicion of illegal dealings in the Czech Republic. At the U.S. instigation, Mr Kozeny has been in the custody in the Bahamas since last October. Last May, the Czech authorities also asked the Bahamas for Mr Kozeny's extradition, but the request has not yet been passed to court.

Czech film director Milos Forman on Friday criticised the decision taken by a Berlin theatre to cancel a Mozart opera for fear it would lead to unrest in Islamic countries. The director of the cult film "Amadeus" about Mozart told a German daily that the decision set a dangerous precedent concerning freedom of speech. The director of the Deutsche Oper, Kirsten Harms, justified her decision on Tuesday to cancel the production of "Idomeneo" on grounds the opera presented an "incalculable risk for the safety of the public and the staff of the opera." In one of the scenes, the character of Idomeneo carries the heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Mohamed and places them on four chairs. The cancellation has been heavily criticised by German politicians as well as Muslim associations.

The Association of Travel Agencies of the Czech Republic has revealed that the number of tourists visiting Prague has dropped for the first time since 1989. In the first quarter of 2006 the Czech capital saw 2.9 million visits by foreign tourists - four percent less than the same period one year ago. Roughly two-thirds of those who come to the Czech Republic visit the Czech capital. Reasons for the drop in the number of visitors 17 years after the Velvet Revolution says a representative of the Association of Travel Agencies, include the fact that many more Europeans are now familiar with the city. Meanwhile, although Prague saw fewer visitors in the first quarter of this year than before, the number of visitors from further abroad such as the US, Russia, Japan and China, continues to increase.

Twenty-two people have been treated for injuries received in a bus crash near the southern town of Jindrichuv Hradec. Five hospitals on Thursday checked those hurt in the accident, some of them with more serious injuries but none critical. The accident took place in the morning when the bus went off the road and into a ditch but did not flip over. The coach driver told police that the brakes on the vehicle failed. The coach was headed to Jindrichuv Hradec from Brno.