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11/13/2019
The Czech-Chinese Centre at Charles University is to be closed down on the orders of the university’s rector Tomáš Zima.
The university has been embroiled in a scandal over secret Chinese payments to four of its faculty members, amid concerns that Beijing is using the centre to boost its influence in the Czech academic sphere.
The university fired the head of the university’s Centre for Security Policy, and two other members of the Social Sciences faculty last week after it emerged that they had set up a private fund through which the Chinese embassy paid for conferences co-organised by the university centre.
Rector Zima said he would not stand by and watch the centre damage the university’s reputation. Charles University is the oldest university in Central Europe.
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11/13/2019
Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček has said that officials from the Czech embassy in Athens would visit Greek refugee camps housing “unaccompanied minors“ in order to ascertain the situation in connection with an appeal from the Greek authorities for individual EU member states to accept a given number of orphans.
Christian Democrat leader Marek Výborný, who relayed the minister’s words to the press, said that if the selected children passed the security screening then the Czech Republic should show solidarity and accept them. Greece has suggested the Czech Republic could take in 40 of the 2,500 “unaccompanied minors”.
The Christian Democrats who have strongly advocated for this to be done say there are Czech families ready to give them a home.
However the ruling parties have frowned on the idea, with Prime Minister Babis reiterating that refugees, including underage children, should be helped in their home countries.
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11/13/2019
Pilgrims from the Czech Republic attended a public audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday.
Believers from this country travelled to the Vatican to mark the 30th anniversary of the canonisation of Saint Agnes of Bohemia by Pope John Paul II on 12 November 1989, which was considered a significant event in the final days of the Communist regime.
During the audience on St. Peter’s Square the pilgrims presented the Pontiff with a gift in the form of a bronze and silver statue representing the Czech saint.
The Pope blessed many of them and swooped up several small children for a ride in his Pope mobile.
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11/13/2019
Prague’s Václav Havel Airport will expand Terminal 2 in order to accommodate the growing number of passengers, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said at a press briefing in Prague on Wednesday.
The planned expansion, which was approved by the Finance Ministry, should cost 16 billion crowns and be concluded by 2028. The prime minister said plans to build another parallel runway would be dealt with in accordance with the availability of state finances for the project.
The airport is planning future investments to the tune of 55 billion crowns.
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11/13/2019
The Czech tennis player Tomáš Berdych looks set to announce his retirement. Berdych, who is 34, will make public that he is quitting the sport at the ATP Finals in London this weekend, his father Martin Berdych told the newspaper Blesk.
Berdych, who has problems with his left hip, signalled his intention to retire at the US Open earlier this year.
In a very successful career he reached fourth in the world rankings, made it to the final at Wimbledon and won the Davis Cup with the Czech Republic twice.
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11/13/2019
The Russian authorities have placed the Czech NGO People in Need on a list of undesirable organisations, the TASS news agency reported. The move by the Ministry of Justice in Moscow amounts to a ban on the humanitarian organisation operating in the country as continuing to do so can result in high sanctions and jail sentences. People in Need said it was not surprised by the announcement, adding that it had no plans to cease working in Russia.
The Czech minister of foreign affairs, Tomáš Petříček, said the reasons the NGO were placed on the list were absurd and that he would seek an explanation from the Russian ambassador to Prague.
Since Russia brought in legislation against undesirable organisations in 2015 a number of international groups have been effectively barred from the country.
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11/12/2019
The Czech Ministry of Defence has approved the purchase of 12 helicopters from the United States at a cost of CZK 14.6 billion not including VAT. The minister of defence, Lubomír Metnar, said that he had informed the government of the move at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. His officials aim to conclude the contract to buy eight UH-1Y Venom and four AH-1Z Viper helicopters from manufacturer Bell by the end of the year. Mr. Metnar said the new aircraft were needed to replace Mil Mi-24s that would soon not be fit for purpose, adding that the Czech Republic should also no longer be dependent on helicopters that were made in Russia.
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11/12/2019
Students at the Faculty of Arts at Prague’s Charles University began an occupational strike aimed at boosting awareness of climate change on Tuesday.
Organisers said participants planned to sleep at the faculty overnight before the protest culminates on Palach Square, in front of the building, on Wednesday.
However, faculty staff have said that they must exit the building by 10 pm.
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11/12/2019
Czech clerics and pilgrims attended a special event at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Tuesday marking the 30th anniversary of the canonisation of St. Agnes of Bohemia. A mass was held in honour of Pope John Paul II, who canonised the Czech saint on November 12, 1989, just days before the start of the Velvet Revolution.
Tuesday’s mass was conducted by the leader of the Czech Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Dominik Duka. Prayers were said at an altar to St. Wenceslas, a statute of St. Agnes, the tomb of St. Peter and the place where Cardinal Josef Beran's remains were interred before being returned to his homeland last year.
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11/12/2019
The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, will take part in celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Bratislava on Saturday. Mr. Zeman will lay a wreath at a plaque at Comenius University and will also open a new Czech House in the city. However, as previously announced, he will not be attending any events in Prague on Sunday, the actual anniversary of the start of the revolution.
Mr. Zeman’s spokesperson, Jiří Ovčáček, said that on November 17 he would be observing a silent remembrance, which was more valuable than “poetic words”.
Mr. Ovčáček also said that some people had “stolen” the anniversary and would be holding a “hate gathering” in the Czech capital.
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