News

The Interior Ministry has approved the registration of a new political entity – the Democratic Green Party. The party has emerged as a result of infighting within the Green Party of Martin Bursík, which recently lost close to half of its rank-and-file members following a confrontation between the party leadership and an opposition fraction. Mr. Bursík’s critics say he betrayed voters’ interests in return for political gains and accuse him of running the party in an undemocratic manner. The Democratic Green Party has over a thousand potential members and is expected to run in elections to the European Parliament.

The 41-year-old Macedonian who shot dead four people last Saturday before turning the gun on himself is reported to have died of his injuries. The man forced his way into a restaurant where his ex-girlfiend’s father was celebrating his birthday and proceeded to shoot the girl, her new partner and both her parents in an act of revenge. All of them died on the spot. Reports say that he could not come to terms with the break-up and disputes over who should have custody of their two-year-old daughter.

The Czech economy grew by 3.1 percent last year instead of the earlier predicted 3.5 percent, the Czech Statistical Office announced on Wednesday. If that figure holds, it would mean that economic growth nearly halved in 2008 from 2007’s 6.0 percent. The latest growth figure results from a revision of February’s estimate following new information from businesses and the government. The latest figures show how the financial crisis hit the economy at the end of the year. Economic growth in the last quarter of 2008 fell by 0.9 percent compared with the previous three months in what is the first quarterly fall since 1998.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek expressed the hope that Montenegro would launch EU membership talks in 2010 during a visit to the country on Wednesday. He said the former Yugoslavian state, which later split from Serbia, should start talks about membership within a year. Mr Topolánek also expressed the hope the country would prove its democratic credentials in upcoming parliamentary elections on March 29. During an earlier visit to Macedonia, Mr. Topolánek pledged the Czech Republic would do its best to assist the lifting of visa requirements between Macedonia and the EU by the target date of 2010. Macedonia also wants to be a fully-fledged EU member state. Although it has the status of a candidate country but accession talks have yet to be launched.