News

In a quarterly report on national security, the Czech intelligence service BIS has warned of an alarming rise in anti-Roma sentiments among the public. The report pointed to the fact that in the recent protests and clashes in the towns of Duchcov and České Budejovice a large number of regular citizens joined small groups of right-wing extremists. BIS experts believe that frustrations with everyday petty crime and violence in combination with latent anti-Roma sentiments may prove to be a serious threat for the security of the country in the future. Until now, smaller groups of extremists were behind the major anti-Roma clashes, and did not present a significant threat. The security report said that the ethnic tension needs to be resolved an effective, pragmatic and unemotional manner as soon as possible.

A 36-year-old Czech tourist and her 8-year-old daughter have been found dead in their hotel room in Hurghada, Egypt, a Czech Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday. One of the speculated causes of death is food poisoning, although this has not been confirmed by official sources. The husband of the woman and the father of the young girl is in hospital. In an interview with Czech Television on Tuesday afternoon, the man’s sister said he called their mother saying that he has found his wife and child already dead in the hotel room and later collapsed himself. The Czech consul in Egypt is in contact with police and the travel agency, with which the victims traveled to the country.

Heavy storms overnight caused damage around the country: fire fighters and emergency crews worked overnight to remove fallen trees from roads and rail tracks, pumping water from cellars and evacuating children’s summer camps. In Liberec a man drowned in flood waters, another was seriously injured by a falling tree. Thousands of homes were left without electricity and rail traffic was disrupted around the country. Several roads and rail routes remained closed on Tuesday morning due to fallen trees. Some regions have already calculated preliminary damages to tens of millions of crowns. In Prague, the Chodov and Můstek metro stations had to be briefly closed down to prevent flash flooding.

The Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint by the publishing company Mladá fronta against their competitors Mafra, which puts out one of the most popular Czech dailies Mladá fronta Dnes. A Prague Municipal Court rejected the complaint in 2009, and the Supreme Court turned down Mladá fronta’s appeal of the decision last February. The publisher wants Mafra to stop using their trademark name for the newspaper. The predecessor of Mladá fronta published a newspaper with the same name since 1945, but in 1989 it was purchased by a different publisher and the word Dnes was added to the title. Mafra, which now owns the newspaper, also publishes the daily Lidové noviny and other publications and was recently purchased by billionaire Andrej Babiš.