News

Saturday's edition of the daily Pravo writes that an agency recruiting Czech men to work as security guards in Iraq is run by a man sentenced for fraud. The agency based in the town of Otrokovice in South Moravia promises the men to be paid 80 dollars per hour in Iraq but charges fees for mediation and training. According to the daily the Czech Embassy in Baghdad has no information about a Czech security agency operating in Iraq and the daily adds that the man behind the recruiting agency, Vladimir Hunek, was sentenced for fraud earlier this year. At present, there are some 30 mercenaries of Czech origin in Iraq working for foreign agencies. They are mostly former soldiers from special units or the French Foreign Legion.

Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan has told journalists that if a rave was held now in the Czech Republic and the law was being broken, police would step in again. Mr Bublan made the statement while visiting the Tachov region on Friday, the site of a controversial rave attended by some 4,000 people in July, an event broken up forcibly by police. On July 29th, concluding that private property was being damaged, 1,000 officers in riot gear brought the rave, known as CzechTek, to an end using tear gas and water cannons. Dozens of those in attendance, as well as officers, suffered minor injuries.

On Friday, the interior minister met with local majors and other officials in the Tachov region, saying he will propose new legislation in September regarding rave events. The new bill, he said, will require organisers to submit a list of conditions for approval, with municipalities reserving the right to ban. The Interior Minister indicated he would like the bill to come into law as early as possible, next spring.

Both Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and the Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy, Martin Jahn, have welcomed a boost in the Czech Republic's foreign currency rating from 'A-minus' to 'A' by the international agency Fitch Ratings. Finance Minister Sobotka said the upgrade reflected what he called the 'excellent situation' in the Czech economy and improvement in public budgets, while Martin Jahn called it 'further proof' the Czech economy was at its strongest in ten years. The higher rating should attract new foreign investment.

An ultralite plane crashed in Prague's Letnany district on Friday, killing both passengers, a father and son. According to reports the plane crashed when landing within the perimeter of an aviation club in Letnany on the outskirts of the capital. The cause of the accident is not yet known. According to investigators at the scene the pilot likely made a mistake when trying to land. A helicopter and an ambulance car arrived immediately at the scene but both passengers were already dead. Two teams of firefighters have been trying to remove the bodies from the plane.