• Air France-KLM to bid for Czech Airlines, Lufthansa not interested
    02/26/2009

    The airline Air France-KLM is planning to take part in a tender to buy the Czech state-owned carrier CSA, the news website euro.cz reported, quoting the French newspaper La Tribune. However, the German airline Lufthansa will not bid for Czech Airlines, euro.cz said. Tenders to participate in the privatisation must be delivered by March 23. Russia’s Aeroflot has repeatedly stated its interest in buying CSA.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Pavel Nedvěd retiring in summer regardless of whether Juve win Champions League
    02/26/2009

    The Czech football star Pavel Nedvěd says he will retire at the end of this season regardless of whether his club Juventus win the European Champions League. Nedvěd, who is 36, was in action on Wednesday night when the Italian giants were beaten 1:0 at Chelsea in the first leg of a last 16 tie. Speaking to Czech journalists after the game, he said the time was right for him to quit. Nedvěd, only the second Czech ever named European footballer of the year, has previously indicated he may stay on at Juventus in a non-playing capacity.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Three sentenced to community service, one expelled, for fan violence
    02/25/2009

    A court in Brno sentenced four individuals for disorderly conduct at a recent football match, three of them with up to 400 hours of community service. The fourth, a Polish national, was expelled from the country and banned for five years. A fifth person remains to be tried. All of the men, fans of the Ostrava Baník football club, were involved in broader fan violence on Sunday ahead of a Brno-Ostrava match. Police in riot gear had to be called in to gain control of the situation. The recent violence and the introduction of new rules shifting the responsibility for security to individual clubs - from the police - has drawn criticism from the largest opposition party, the Social Democrats. The issue of hooliganism is to be discussed in the lower house next week.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Lidové noviny: bus drivers skimmed millions off passengers
    02/25/2009

    A firm responsible for the organisation of mass transit in Prague has said that city bus drivers stole tens of millions of crowns from the company last year, Lidové noviny reported. Some ten percent of the city’s drivers are thought to be guilty of having accepted transit fees without issuing actual tickets. The number of passengers who were stolen from has been estimated at 2.8 million.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • French daily reports Air France-KLM weighing ČSA bid
    02/25/2009

    The French-Dutch airliner Air France-KLM is reportedly weighing a bid for ČSA, the Czech national carrier, up for sale by the Czech government. According to the French daily La Tribune, the airline could offer as much as 200 million euros for the 91.5 percent stake - the equivalent of 5.6 billion crowns (or around 255 million US dollars). A spokesperson for Air France-KLM on Wednesday said the company was looking carefully into the sale but did not confirm the amount of the potential bid. The Czech government is hoping to announce a buyer by September 30. Others firms interested in ČSA include Aeroflot and reportedly also Lufthansa.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Christian Democrats propose constitutional amendment reducing number of MPs
    02/25/2009

    The Christian Democratic Party has proposed a bill for a constitutional amendment reducing the number of MPs from 200 to 199 to preclude the possibility of a deadlock. The bill, which also would permit direct election of the president, is to be discussed by the coalition next week.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Poll: majority satisfied with government’s handling of EU presidency
    02/25/2009

    A new survey released by pollsters Factum Invenio has suggested that 67 percent of Czechs approve of their government’s handling of the European presidency. Some 20 percent feel the opposite is true. The Czech Republic took over the rotating EU presidency from France at the start of the year, and will turn it over to Sweden in July. The EU presidency entails organising and chairing the meetings of the Council of the European Union, the main decision-making body of the EU.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Officers given three-year suspended sentences over death of Uzbek national
    02/25/2009

    The District Court in Plzeň has handed down a three-year suspended sentence to two police officers for the accidental death of an Uzbek man last August. The foreigner suffered a head injury after being thrown out of a bar by the policemen, but did not receive proper treatment at a local hospital and died two days later. The officers had faced up to 15 years in prison for manslaughter in the case; one of them has made clear he will not appeal the decision.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • ČSOB robbed of several hundred thousand in Třebíč hold-up
    02/25/2009

    A branch office of ČSOB bank in Třebíč, in the Czech-Moravian highlands, was robbed on Wednesday afternoon. According to available information, the disguised perpetrator, a lone individual armed with a pistol, left the bank on foot with several hundred thousand crowns. No one was injured in the incident.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Veterinarians deny exporting cowpox-infected rats
    02/25/2009

    The Czech veterinarian authority has denied accusations that Czech breeders exported dozens of common rats infected with cowpox to France and Germany. In January, 20 rats with the infection were detected in German pet shops. Later, nine more cases were discovered in France. Local authorities say all the animals came from a Czech wholesale company. The Czech veterinarian body said on Tuesday they had inspected several facilities from which the rats had allegedly come, and found no animals infected with the disease.
    Author: Christian Falvey

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