• Police arrest youth over plan to bomb school
    03/24/2009

    Police have arrested a 17-year-old in Nový Bydžov, east Bohemia who planned a bomb attack on his school and fellow pupils, the newspaper Deník reported. The youth, who has been remanded in custody since his arrest on Thursday, could face up to five years in jail if found guilty. Class-mates reported that he had behaved oddly and paid a great deal of attention to massacres in schools in other countries. Police are refusing to comment on the case, citing the suspect’s youth.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Four in running to buy Czech Airlines
    03/24/2009

    Four bidders have expressed interest in buying the state-owned carrier Czech Airlines, the Finance Ministry said. Three airlines are in the running for the 91.5-percent stake in CSA: Air France-KLM, Russia’s Aeroflot and a Czech consortium that includes the country’s biggest charter airline Travel Service. The fourth bid is from Odien AV III AS, a private equity fund of a financial company which is active in the region. Some commentators had expected more bids for Czech Airlines. The Czech government expects to choose a winner by the end of September, saying the privatisation could bring around CZK 3 billion into state coffers.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Daily: Krejčíř could be extradited over entering South Africa on false passport
    03/24/2009

    Fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejčíř could be extradited from South Africa for entering the country on a false passport, Hospodařské noviny reported. A spokesperson for the South African state attorney’s office told the newspaper the matter was still being investigated. The South African authorities have previously rejected a Czech government request for the extradition of Mr Krejčíř, who is wanted on charges of large scale fraud and conspiracy to murder.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Retail sales down 3.3 percent in January
    03/24/2009

    Retail sales in the Czech Republic fell by 3.3 percent year-on-year in January, according to figures released on Tuesday. Analysts had expected a rather sharper fall, though one told the Czech News Agency the relatively positive result was due to a revision of older retail data by the Czech Statistics Office. Retail sales fell for four months in a row for the first time since the turn of 1998 and 1999.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Germans barred for 30 months for giving Hitler salute after far-right gathering
    03/24/2009

    Three Germans found guilty of giving the Hitler salute in a bar in Plzeň have been expelled from the Czech Republic. They were arrested after a far-right rock concert in the west Bohemian town on Saturday night. A judge barred the three, aged 20, 23 and 26, from returning to the country for a period of 30 months.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Interior Ministry inspectors uncover over 250 crimes committed by police officers
    03/24/2009

    Interior Ministry inspectors uncovered 253 cases of crimes committed by police officers in 2008, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. That figure represents an increase of 15 percent on the previous year. The most common charge was abuse of office; others included traffic offences, insurance and loan fraud and accepting bribes.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Nearly two dozen trains set for delays as clocks go forward on Sunday morning
    03/24/2009

    Twenty-one trains will be delayed in the early hours of Sunday morning when the clocks go forward, a spokesperson for Czech Railways said. The change will mainly affect long-distance trains coming from Russia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Petr Čech named Czech footballer of year for second time
    03/24/2009

    Goalkeeper Petr Čech has been named Czech footballer of the year for 2008. The Chelsea star, who is 26, also took the award three years ago. This time out Čech finished ahead of veteran midfielder Pavel Nedvěd of Juventus and Athletico Madrid defender Tomáš Ujfaluši. Karel Jarolím of Slavia Prague was named the Czech Republic’s manager of the year, while former Slavia striker Tomáš Necid took the young player of the year prize.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • PM Topolánek: elections should be held as soon as possible if government falls
    03/23/2009

    Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told reporters on Monday that his party, the Civic Democrats, will push to have a general election on the earliest possible date if his government loses a no-confidence vote on Tuesday. Mr Topolánek rejected the idea of a caretaker government. The prime minister also turned down a proposal by the opposition that his government would remain in place until the end of the Czech EU presidency in June; Mirek Topolánek said he expected the president to name him, as the leader of the strongest party in the last election, to form a new cabinet.

    The opposition Social Democrats have failed in four previous attempts to bring down the government in a vote of no-confidence.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Time Warner to invest 240 million USD in central and eastern Europe
    03/23/2009

    The US media giant Time Warner will acquire a 31-percent stake in CME, a media corporation that owns the Czech Republic’s largest commercial station TV Nova, according to a statement issued by CME on Monday. Time Warner will pay over USD 241 million for the share. CME’s founder Ronald Lauder said that the alliance with Time Warner would accelerate CME’s development. Apart from the Nova in the Czech Republic, CME owns TV stations in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Rumania and Ukraine.
    Author: Jan Richter

Pages