• Slavia fail to qualify from UEFA Cup group stage after again proving unable to score
    12/05/2008

    Slavia Prague have failed to qualify from the group stage in football’s UEFA Cup, after a 2:0 home defeat to Hamburg on Thursday night left them with just one point from three games. The Czech league leaders have yet to score a single goal in the group stage.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • NHL action: Hanzal gets hat-trick
    12/05/2008

    Czech scorers left their mark in NHL action on Thursday, racking up a number of goals in league games. Phoenix’s young center forward Martin Hanzal earned his first hat-trick to lead the Coyotes to a 6:3 win over Toronto, while David Krejčí scored the winner for Boston 3:1 over Tampa Bay. Other Czechs who scored on the night included Patrick Eliáš and Petr Sýkora in their respective games.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • US: Czech border areas have world’s largest number of pirate goods markets
    12/04/2008

    A report by US authorities says that Czech border areas have the highest concentration and largest number of outdoor markets selling pirated goods in the world. In its annual report the Office of the US Trade Representative has placed the Czech Republic on a watch list of 46 countries violating intellectual property rights. US authorities are concerned with pirated and counterfeit goods sold in retail markets on the border between the Czech Republic and Germany and Austria; some of these markets are reportedly located on government-owned property. Czech customs officials said on Wednesday that the report was one of the reasons behind a raid by hundreds of police and customs officers on the largest Vietnamese marketplace in Prague, which took place in late November.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • ECJ condemns Czech Republic over lack of gender equality laws
    12/04/2008

    The European Court of Justice criticized the Czech Republic on Thursday for the absence of gender equality laws. The court concluded that the Czech Republic had failed to incorporate EU rules on gender equality into its own legislature. The Court will now send the issue back to the European Commission, which filed the lawsuit against the Czech Republic. If the country fails to adopt the laws, the procedure will begin anew and might result in heavy fines. A gender equality act was approved by the Czech Parliament in March of this year but was vetoed by President Klaus.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Czech Republic joins cluster ammunition ban
    12/04/2008

    The Czech Republic has become one of the first countries to join an international ban on the use of cluster ammunition. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed the treaty in the Norwegian capital of Oslo on Wednesday. The document will enter into force six months after it has been signed by the first 30 countries. Major producers of cluster ammunition, including the United States, China, Russia and India, have however refused to join the ban. The Czech Army discarded its Soviet-made cluster bombs in the 1990s.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Head of Judges’ union: Czech justice has room for corruption
    12/04/2008

    The head of the Czech Union of Judges, Tomáš Lichovník, admitted on Thursday that Czech justice system had room for corruption. Speaking at a conference held by Transparency International Czech Republic, Mr Lichovník said the problem lay in the fact that court proceedings were not swift; the conflicting sides may therefore attempt to influence the judge to give their case a priority, or to deliberately postpone it. The head of the Union of Judges said however that corruption did not affect the actual deliberation process.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Czech transport ministry to take over disputed property in port of Hamburg
    12/04/2008

    The Czech Transport Ministry is set to take over several buildings and plots of land in the German port of Hamburg, the daily Právo reported on Thursday. The property, which once belonged to a bankrupt Czech shipping company, was disputed at Czech and German courts; last week the Czech state reached an agreement with the company’s bankruptcy trustee which paved the way for the takeover. The disputed facilities were rented out to Czechoslovakia after WWI; the lease will expire in 2027. The ministry has yet to decide on the use of the property.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Poll: most Czechs confident about Czech EU presidency
    12/04/2008

    A growing number of Czechs believe the Czech Republic will handle the upcoming EU presidency well, a poll by the CVVM agency revealed on Thursday. While a month ago, 49 percent of Czechs believed that their administration was up to the job, the number has now risen to 55 percent. However, only around one third of Czechs say they are interested in the Czech EU presidency.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Regional governors oppose plan to reduce number of trauma centres
    12/04/2008

    Regional governors oppose a plan by the Czech health ministry to reduce the number of the country’s trauma centres from 14 to 10. The newly elected head of the Regional Governors’ Association, Michal Hašek, has asked the health minister to meet with the governors and explain the plan to them. Heath Minister Tomáš Julínek came up with a new scheme that seeks to re-organize Czech traumatological care; under the new plan, trauma centres in Prague, Brno, Pardubice and Zlín should become regular hospitals.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Another tremor in northern Moravia
    12/04/2008

    The mining town of Karviná, in northern Moravia, experienced on Thursday a tremor of 3.7 degrees on the Richter scale. The tremor came only 11 days after a similar quake killed two miners in a local mine. Thursday’s tremor damaged a number of buildings in a twenty kilometre radius.
    Author: Jan Richter

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