News

As of November 17, Czechs traveling to the US will no longer be required to apply for a visa. They will be able to travel on a biometric passport, after filling in an online form known as ESTA or Electronic System of Travel Authorization. Approval by the ESTA system will give Czech citizens unlimited entry to the US over a two year period. The country’s acceptance into the US visa waiver programme will not make any difference to those Czech citizens who already have US visas. Czech and US leaders have greeted the move as a historic step in bilateral relations.

The Czech government has ordered the Czech embassy in Hanoi to suspend the process of issuing visas to all Vietnamese applicants until further notice. The move comes in reaction to the rise in organized crime among the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. Interior Minister Ivan Langer told Czech public television that concrete measures must be taken in order to protect the Czech Republic from mafia practices and criminal activities. The Czech-Vietnamese Society has protested against the blanket measure, saying that only a fraction of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic is involved in organized crime.

A gas explosion in a street near the centre of the town of Hradec Králové has caused one death and six injuries, according to reports. The incident occurred in a residential home in the early hours of Sunday morning. The explosion is said to have been so powerful that neighbouring windows in the area were blasted out of their frames. Police and fire services soon arrived at the scene, and soon discovered the body of a thirty-three-year-old woman in the wreckage. After a search of the five-storey apartment, police also found six injured, including three children. A sixty year-old man injured in the explosion is said to be in a serious condition. The precise cause of the explosion, believed to have been caused by a gas leak, remains unclear.

Five hour talks on Saturday between representatives of the governing coalition parties designed to address differences over health care reforms have ended with little progress. The talks, attended by representatives of the three coalition parties – the Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and Greens, were held without the presence of the Health Minister Tomáš Julínek. Ultimately, only two notably less contentious out of four proposed health reform laws were agreed upon by those attending. The two outstanding proposals deal with health insurance and the provision of health related services, with divisions mainly centering over the inclusion of various fees for services proposed and in some cases already passed by the government. The Greens and Christian Democrats have increasingly voiced opposition to the impression of a health system that is not guaranteed to all Czechs, and which depends on the patients’ ability to pay for services. The Christian Democrats have also proposed that controversial doctor’s visitation fees go not to the doctor’s surgeries, but are paid to health insurance providers instead. Health Minister Tomáš Julínek later responded to this proposal by accusing the Christian Democrats of blocking an agreement. Healthcare reforms are an increasingly sensitive issue for the often fractious coalition.