News

Two Czechs adventurers, Václav Šůra and Pavel Blažek, have completed a crossing of the frozen Lake Baikal in Russia - a 650-kilometre journey on foot that took the duo just under 25 days. The Czechs successfully traversed the lake without any outside help, taking roughly 90 kilos each of rations and equipment on sleds. Temperatures during the journey dropped as low as -35 degrees Celsius and the duo suffered some technical glitches and health problems, but managed to overcome their difficulties through determination, the travellers said.

The police in Ostrava re-qualified on Thursday a recent firebomb attack on a local Romany family as attempted murder. The crime was originally investigated as a threat to public safety. The offenders will now face up to 15 years in prison. The police said the arson attack was re-qualified over suspicions it may have been racially motivated. The police have also set up a special unit to investigate the case, composed of specialists who worked on similar cases in the past.

The attack took place in Ostrava on Saturday when a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the home a local Romany family. The bottle landed in the bedroom of a 14 year old girl who was able to extinguish the burning bottle before it caused further damage. In April of last year, a Romany family in the Moravian town of Vítkov was victim of a racially motivated arson attack, and another such incident took place in September in Mikulov, southern Moravia.

The Czech minister for European affairs, Juraj Chmiel, has outlined country’s priorities for the upcoming EU summit that should deal with the bloc’s economic strategy entitled Europe 2020. Speaking at the Senate on Thursday, Mr Chmiel said these priorities included employment, qualitative economic growth and competitiveness. Minister Chmiel also criticized the European Commission for the lack of emphasis on structural reform, and for not taking into account the national specifics of individual EU member states.

The European Union is set to debate the Europe 2020 strategy document at a summit in Brussels next week. It proposes a number of goals the EU should meet in ten years’ time. Some Czech senators, including the former deputy prime minister for European affairs Alexandr Vondra, criticized the proposal on Thursday for being too vague and for not providing concrete ways of meeting its targets.

The Czech Medical Chamber unanimously apologized on Thursday for a decree adopted in October 1938 that banned Jews from working in the medical professions. A spokesman for the doctors’ group said the decree was anti-Semitic and discriminatory. Members of the Czech Jewish community welcomed the motion, but noted that the apology comes from people who did nothing wrong.

In October 1938, just days after the adoption of the Munich Agreement, associations of Czech doctors, lawyers and engineers called on the government to limit the numbers of Jews in these professions. The Czech Bar Association issued an official apology last year.