News

Radek Štěpánek was knocked out by a player ranked 465th in the world at tennis’s Shanghai Masters on Tuesday. The Czech player, ranked 30th, was eliminated in the first round after losing 3-6 4-6 to Bai Yan of China, who is taking part in the first ATP tournament of his career. Štěpánek’s compatriot Tomáš Berdych fared better, beating Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-0 6-4 to advance to the third round. The world number seven is hoping to win a place at the season-closing ATP World Tour Finals in London for the first time.

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek says that the government could use sales of emissions vouchers to compensate for rising electricity prices next year. Mr Kalousek told reporters today that the income from that alternative should amount to 90 billion crowns between 2013 and 2020. The next meeting of the cabinet will discuss the proposal, which was initially put forward by the Confederation of Industry. Prime Minister Petr Nečas however noted two of the proposal’s short comings: that the vouchers will not be available until 2014, and that they constitute only a temporary solution to high prices caused by solar energy plants. Energy prices are set to rise by 12 and 17% next year for households and businesses, respectively; the government has said it wants to keep the increases to less than 10%.

A poll carried out by the Median agency for the daily Lidové Noviny suggests that 64% of Czechs do not believe that the coalition government is having any success in battling corruption. Praguers were most critical, with 79% saying the current direction was unsatisfactory compared to 55% elsewhere in Bohemia and 63% in Moravia. Voters of the Public Affairs party were most appreciative of the government’s efforts thus far, with 67% giving a positive assessment compared to about five percent of Social Democrat and Communist voters. Prime Minister Petr Nečas said of the poll that it would be almost suspicious if the government had been able to have made gains in fighting corruption after only three months.

Former Czech president Václav Havel has warned that if mankind does not change its approach, civilisation faces disaster. Mr Havel made the comments on the eve of a conference of his Forum 2000 foundation in Prague. He said that to avoid catastrophe, humanity needed to fight its short-sightedness, bovine belief in its omniscience and swollen pride. Speakers at the 14th Forum 2000 conference, which began on Monday morning, include Iranian human rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi, Cuban dissident Jose Luis Garcia Paneque and British writer Misha Glenny.