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03/02/2009
The government approved on Monday a purchase of 107 Austrian armoured vehicles Pandur for the Czech army. The deal will cost to 14.4 billion crowns, or more than 640 million US dollars. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told reporters that a number of Czech companies will take part in the production. The Czech government first negotiated with the Austrian manufacturer Steyr in 2003; four years later the original contract was cancelled as the Austrian arms producer was unable to comply with its conditions.
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03/02/2009
Around 500 workers from the troubled glass giant Bohemia Crystalex Trading gathered outside the government building in Prague on Monday to draw attention to their social situation. They also protested against the government’s lack of action when dealing with the impact of the company’s bankruptcy. The protesters asked the government to allow for extraordinary social benefits; they also demanded a change in the law that would not give priority to banks over the company’s own employees when settling corporate debts.
Bohemia Crystalex Trading was the country’s largest manufacturer of glass with around 7,000 employees. In September last year, it declared bankruptcy and closed most of its plants.
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03/02/2009
The Czech Republic’s biggest health insurance firm VZP has reimbursed more than 10 000 clients who spent more than the maximum 5,000 crowns (221 USD) on their own healthcare last year, a spokesman said on Monday. The total sum that VZP has handed back to its clients totals more than 18 million crowns (797,000 USD). The insurer said that in the fourth quarter of 2008, its clients spent a total of 4.63 billion crowns (205 million USD) on healthcare fees and treatment, though medicines purchased at the chemist are not included in this figure. The government introduced a new system of healthcare fees at the beginning of 2008 – under the new system, patients must pay a 30-crown fee per visit to the doctor and 60 crowns per night spent in hospital. Those who spend over 5,000 crowns per year on their own healthcare will be reimbursed for the money they spend above that sum.
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03/02/2009
The head of Czech doctors’ association, Milan Kubek, said that female physicians performed worse than male doctors. Speaking before the health committee of Parliament’s lower house, Mr Kubek said that “feminization” was the second biggest cause behind the crisis of the Czech health care system, followed by the increasing age of Czech doctors and their retirement. Mr Kubek said that female physicians’ work commitment was lower than men’s due to their family duties. Several female doctors among MPs as well as other physicians criticized Mr Kubek’s statement, while some other Czech physicians told the daily Mladá fronta Dnes that the doctors’ leader did have a point. The Czech Republic has one of the highest numbers of female doctors of all OECD countries, with 52.7 percent female physicians.
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03/02/2009
The Czech Constitutional Court rejected on Monday a complaint by a Romany woman who underwent forced sterilization in an Ostrava hospital in 1997. Ms Iveta Červeňáková, who was 21 at the time, complained about a decision by the police to shelve a criminal case against two of the hospital’s physicians. The Court said none of her constitutional rights were infringed by that decision.
Ms Červeňáková was sterilized in the Ostrava Municipal Hospital in 1997, after giving birth to her second child. A local court awarded her 500,000 crowns, or more than 22,000 US dollars, in damages, but a higher court said last year her claim was covered by the statute of limitations.
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03/02/2009
The Czech embassy in Hanoi resumed issuing visas for Vietnamese nationals to work in the Czech Republic, the news website lidovky.cz reported on Sunday. A Czech foreign ministry spokesperson said the embassy registered great interest despite the economic crisis. The Czech government recently launched a repatriation programme for foreigners who lost their jobs. All who apply will be given a flight ticket and an allowance of 500 euro. Around 400 jobless foreigners, out of an estimated 12,000, have joined the scheme so far.
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03/02/2009
The funeral of Jan Winkler, who was Czech ambassador to the UK, took place in Prague on Monday. Mr Winkler died suddenly on February 16, aged 51. A spokesperson for the Czech Foreign Ministry said that the Czech Republic had lost one of its most capable diplomats. Mr Winkler died of natural causes. Mr Winkler became Czech Ambassador to Britain in 2005 after serving at the Foreign Ministry in Prague between 2003 and 2005.
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03/02/2009
Czech Karel Bruckner, who is 69, was fired on Monday as the head coach of the Austrian national football team due to poor results. Mr Bruckner took over the Austrian side last July and scored a surprising home win over France in the World Cup 2010 qualifier. The coach led the Czech national team between 2001 and 2008.
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03/01/2009
The EU will give struggling eastern European countries support if needed, although the bloc’s leaders have decided against a regional aid plan, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek said on Sunday. Speaking after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels chaired by the Czech EU presidency, Mr Topolánek told journalists that he thought it was perfectly clear that the European Union was ‘not going to leave anybody in the lurch’. The one-day emergency summit was called by Mr Topolánek last month to tackle the economic and financial crisis. At the summit, EU leaders were hoping to patch over their differences and avoid a crisis of confidence in the bloc’s single market.
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03/01/2009
In the run-up to the summit, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek called upon fellow European leaders not to divide the bloc by implementing ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ protectionist policies. In the statement released on Saturday, Mr Topolánek said that Europe would only be able to overcome the current financial crisis if member states ‘acted together in a coordinated way’. He urged EU leaders to continue to abide by Community rules, even as recession deepened. The Czech prime minister warned that a Europe divided along North-South or East-West lines was ‘unacceptable’ and to be avoided. Mr Topolánek did, however, call the bail-out packages implemented by individual EU member states ‘essential’, saying it was through such bail-outs that frozen credit flows would be unlocked.
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