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06/29/2010
An exhibition of the work of German artist Hans von Aachen gets underway at Prague Castle on Tuesday. One of the highlights of the travelling show is a portrait, believed to be from 1605, of the Holy Roman emperor and king of Bohemia Rudolph II. Von Aachen served as a court painter and art buyer for the Hapsburg monarch in Prague at the start of the 17th century.
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06/29/2010
The Czech tennis player Petra Kvitová has sensationally reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon. Kvitová, who is 20, had already caused one upset by knocking out fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. On Tuesday afternoon she went one better, returning five match balls on her way to a 4-6 7-6 8-6 victory over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. On Wednesday Tomáš Berdych will play Roger Federer in the men’s quarter-finals, after overcoming the German player Daniel Brands. The Czech number one recently got to the semi-finals at the French Open, his greatest success to date at a Grand Slam tournament.
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06/28/2010
President Václav Klaus has appointed Civic Democrat leader Petr Nečas as the country’s new prime minister, exactly one month after parties holding talks on forming a centre-right coalition won a decisive 118 seats in the general election. Mr Nečas was appointed by the president at Prague Castle on Monday shortly after 10 am. The Civic Democrat leader – in negotiations with two new parties TOP 09 and Public Affairs – will now have some time to put together the new centre-right cabinet before the start of a 30-day deadline by which the new government is bound to seek a confidence vote in Parliament. Mr Nečas has been pushing to conclude negotiations with the other parties by mid-July but negotiating teams have yet to agree on concrete ministerial posts as well as numerous key issues.
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06/28/2010
Mr Nečas said after the appointment that he will not be making use of several of the benefits available to him in his new position. The new prime minister said that he would not be using bodyguards, as he was not in any specific danger and had never had any in his previous posts. Likewise he does not intend to use the Kramář Villa, which has served as the official residence for all prime ministers except Jan Fischer since 1998. He also declined to use the Audi government vehicle available to him, saying he would continue to use a Czech-made vehicle.
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06/28/2010
The Public Affairs party told reporters ahead of Monday-evening coalition negotiations that they are sticking to their demand that their chairman, Radek John, head the interior ministry and that an offer to include counter-corruption measures in the coalition agreement would not suffice. The evening’s negotiations are to focus on law and corruption. Public Affairs negotiator Karolína Peake said that the talks would not be dealing with the party’s weekend declaration that they would stay out of the coalition if they were not given the portfolio. The party’s deputy Krystýna Kočí said on Sunday that being in charge of the interior ministry was one of the party’s absolute priorities in view of the fact that the fight against corruption was the mainstay of its policy programme. Members of the other two coalition parties dismissed the move as unprofessional.
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06/28/2010
Meanwhile, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Jan Fischer, who has formally resigned but continues to head the cabinet, has decided to provide an additional 25 million crowns in damages to persons excluded from higher education for political reasons between the years 1948 and 1956. Mr Fischer said that the compensation was a moral issue, and that it would be paid for from the government’s budget reserve. Persons who were denied higher education on political grounds during that eight year period can claim up to 100,000 crowns in damages. While the Ministry of Education originally believed that there are still roughly 500 such people, nearly twice as many have applied thus far.
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06/28/2010
A passenger train has derailed in the central Bohemian town of Ústí nad Labem killing the engineer and injuring 11 people, the Czech Press Agency has reported. Two people are reported to be seriously injured but stable, while another four are in moderately serious condition. The CityElefant-type train was on its way to Ústí nad Labem from Prague when it seems to have derailed on a point switch and tipped over, slamming into a concrete wall that tore through the front of the locomotive only a few hundred metres from its destination.
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06/28/2010
The Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic has reported that the army purchased an unsuitable military plane for more than 142% of its actual price in 2006. According to the report, an unmanned reconnaissance helicopter was ordered for the Afghanistan mission at a cost of 46 million before a different machine was purchased for 66 million. The acquired drone was then found to be unsuitable for the mission in question due to its short flying time and range. The government is to review the report on Monday.
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06/28/2010
According to information confirmed by Czech police, nine people lost their lives on Czech roads at the weekend while an additional 87 people were injured, 21 of them seriously. Two of the accidents involved cars hit by oncoming trains, where drivers reportedly failed to heed warning signals. Thirty people have died on the railways since January – the worst figure in seven years.
Fatal traffic accidents at the weekend also involved motorcyclists: in Plzeň, a 27-year-old rider was killed after being caught in a three-way collision with a fellow biker and a city bus.
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06/28/2010
The region of Olomouc is to discontinue its coverage of patients’ healthcare fees as of July 1. The regional council made the decision on Monday based on a proposal from community councillors. The governor’s office has been covering the 30-crown fee since early last year at a cost of 42 million crowns. Healthcare fees of 30 crowns at the doctor’s and for individual prescriptions, as well as higher amounts for emergency ward visits and hospital stays, were first introduced by Mirek Topolánek’s government in 2008. Earlier this month, coverage by regional governments was labelled “discriminatory” by the European Commission, which said that either all patients in the country should be covered – or none.
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