News

A Czech snowboarder suffered injuries in an avalanche he and his companion triggered near Pitztahl, in the Austrian Alps, on Sunday, the news agency APA reported. The two 40-year-old Czechs were snowboarding outside of designated ski slopes despite the fact an avalanche warning was in place, the agency said. They immediately triggered an avalanche; one of them managed to free himself from the snow, the other was dragged for some 300 metres. The injured man was airlifted to hospital.

President Miloš Zeman is visiting Czech troops stationed in Afghanistan, the first Czech head of state to do so. Mr Zeman, who arrived in Kabul on Friday, has also met with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai. The Czech president visited military installations in Kabul and Bagram where handed out parcels with Czech food products and films. Mr Zeman is set to return to the Czech Republic on Sunday.

There are more than 260 Czech soldiers serving in Afghanistan as part of NATO’s ISAF mission who are set to withdraw later this year, along with other allied troops. Mr Zeman was scheduled to visit the troops at the end of last year but had to postpone the visit due to health issues.

Jiří Kohout was on Saturday elected new chairman of Public Affairs, a former coalition party that failed to win seats in the lower house of Parliament in October’s general election. Mr Kohout replaces Vít Bárta, the grouping’s founder, who stepped down last year over police investigation of his business activities. The new chairman said he considered his role as that of a crisis manager who should improve the party’s reputation.

Public Affairs won around 10 percent of the vote in the 2010 general election, running on promises of clean politics. The party joined a coalition government along with the Civic Democrats and TOP 09 but was rocked by a prolonged series of scandals and infighting.

The Czech Senate is likely to approve the start of talks on Macedonia’s accession to the EU, the news agency ČTK reported on Saturday. The proposal has been passed by the Senate’s EU affairs committee; Senators are scheduled to vote on the motion next week. The upper chamber of the Czech Parliament is also expected to call for a new dynamics of Turkey’s accession to the 28-member bloc, the agency said.