News

Czech national ice hockey coach Vladimír Růžička is facing more allegations of bribe-taking while coaching domestic league club Slavia, Czech Radio reported on Tuesday. According to the report, Mr Růžička asked several parents for large sums of money to allow their children play for the club. The Czech national coach has refused to comment on the accusations. A criminal complaint of corruption has already been filed against the coach for bribe-taking, fraud and breach of trust in connection with a sum of CZK 500,000 he is alleged to have accepted from a man to allow his son to play for Slavia Prague.

This year’s Pavel Koutecký Award for Best Czech Documentary has gone to Jana Ševčíková for her film Opři žebřík o nebe or Lean a Ladder against Heaven, a portrait of Catholic priest Marián Kuffa, who leads a parish in a small village in the Slovak Tatra Mountains that provides asylum to those released from prison, alcoholics, drug addicts and other people in need. The award giving ceremony took place at Prague’s Archa theatre on Monday evening. Over 100 documentaries were considered for the prize, with the winner eventually selected from a shortlist of 10. Pavel Koutecký was a filmmaker who died in 2006 at the age of 50, halfway through filming Citizen Havel, a portrait of the late president that subsequently became a great success.

The Czech Cabinet on Monday agreed to a proposal to double charges imposed on drinks companies for the right to use mineral water. The meeting agreed to double the charge, currently fixed at 3 crowns/cubic metre and unchanged since 2001. The Ministry of Finance, which drafted the proposal, said it was a question of better managing the state’s assets. The Mineral Water Association, which groups mineral water companies, said the increase was a large one and would hit them hard, adding that the charges relate to the maximum amount of water that can be used with companies often only using up a third of their allocation. Smaller companies would be hardest hit, it added.

Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek has condemned Israel’s continued policy of building settlements on land earmarked for the Palestinians. Zaorálek said that by persevering with the policy Israel was torpedoing any chance of meaningful peace talks being revived. Building on land, for example in East Jerusalem, gave the impression that Israel was not serious about restarting talks on the so-called two-state principle, he added. The comments were made ahead of a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanjahu on Monday. Zaorálek is on a three-day trip to Israel and Palestine which has included a trip to the Gaza Strip. The foreign minister said he was shocked by the devastation following the bombardment and partial occupation by Israeli forces in 2014 and the slow pace of rebuilding. The Czech foreign minister added that sporadic rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israel should cease.