• Prague airport closed after bomb threat
    10/07/2005

    Prague's Ruzyne Airport was closed for just over an hour on Friday afternoon, after an anonymous telephone bomb threat was received. The airport's main hall was evacuated, while passengers had to remain on planes which had just landed until a search was completed.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Austrians project anti-Temelin slogans onto nuclear plant's cooling tower
    10/07/2005

    Austrian anti-nuclear activists projected slogans alleging the Temelin nuclear power station was unsafe onto one of its cooling towers on Thursday night. The protest marked five years since the launch of the plant, which is around 60 km from the border with nuclear-free Austria.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Supermarket manager charged with endangering public health
    10/07/2005

    Police in Ceske Budejovice have charged a manager of a branch of the Julius Meinl supermarket chain with endangering public health; she is alleged to have ordered employees to place mouldy food on the shelves. The boss is also accused of herself changing the date on out-of-date meat and putting it back on sale. Poor hygiene and dubious practices at the supermarket were uncovered by inspectors at the end of last month.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech Radio considers licence fee for people who listen over internet
    10/07/2005

    Czech Radio is considering the possibility of introducing radio licence fees for computers with a sound card and internet connection, Hospodarske noviny reported on Friday. The public service station has commissioned a study into whether such computers qualify as "radio receivers", the daily said.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Gay group using comic to persuade MPs to vote for registered partnerships
    10/07/2005

    A homosexual rights group is hoping to persuade MPs to vote for registered partnerships by means of a comic book, Tereza Kodickova of the Gay and Lesbian League said on Friday. The comic features a cactus and a bonsai tree living together, and is intended to promote gay rights in a light-hearted way.

    The lower house is due to vote on the issue later this month. Last year a bill on registered partnerships was defeated by just one vote.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Baros fit for crucial football game against Holland
    10/07/2005

    Striker Milan Baros has given the Czech football team a boost by declaring himself fit ahead of an important World Cup qualifying game against the Netherlands in Prague on Saturday. The Czechs will be without several key players: Jan Koller, Vratislav Lokvenc, Marek Jankulovski and Vladimir Smicer are all ruled out with injury, while team captain Tomas Galasek is doubtful.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Jagr, Hasek start new NHL season in style
    10/07/2005

    Two of the Czech Republic's biggest ice hockey stars started the new NHL season in style on Thursday: forward Jaromir Jagr notched up two goals and an assist for the New York Rangers in their victory over Philadelphia, while goaltender Dominik Hasek saved a penalty in Ottawa's win over Toronto.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Doctors protest and call for minister to resign
    10/06/2005

    Doctors around the country closed down their offices on Thursday in protest at late payments from the state-run health insurance company VZP. Around a fifteen hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Health Ministry building in Prague in support of the private doctors' strike. The doctors were joined in the demonstration by pharmacists and dentists, and by some politicians from the right-wing opposition Civic Democrats.

    During the protest there were calls for the resignation of the Health Minister Milada Emmerova, who was blamed for the current cash-flow crisis. Talks between Mrs Emmerova and doctors are to continue after a two-hour meeting on Thursday afternoon ended in deadlock.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • EP legal committee recommends Zelezny be stripped of immunity
    10/06/2005

    The legal committee of the European Parliament has recommended that MEP Vladimir Zelezny, the former director of the Czech commercial television station Nova, be stripped of immunity. The final decision is to be made at an EP plenary session in late October. At a closed meeting, the committee approved the proposal by the rapporteur, Austrian Social Democrat Marie Berger, that Mr Zelezny should be put at the disposal of Czech authorities to investigate three charges, for which the Czech judiciary had asked for his parliamentary immunity to be removed.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Austria's OMV takes over Czech Aral
    10/06/2005

    The Austrian firm OMV has taken over the Czech chain of petrol filling stations Aral. OMV's director said that they planned to invest up to 5 million US dollars in the chain. He said that Aral stations will all adopt the OMV logo within the next six months, but he would not say how much OMV had paid for the company. The deal will make OMV the chain selling the largest volume of car fuel in the Czech Republic. The Polish petrochemicals concern PKN Orlen had also been interested in buying Aral.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

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