News

Environmental organization Arnika says 166,000 trees have been cut down along the sides of roads in the Czech Republic since 2003. Although the law states that sacrificed trees should be replaced, Arnika says that only 100,000 have been planted as replacements. In some regions the picture is even worse with only one replacement tree for every 10 cut down. Many regions have sought to remove trees from the sides of roads on safety grounds.

A political row has broken out over the South Moravia region’s proposed financial backing for a week of Russian culture timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Local leaders of the TOP 09 political party have called for the 200,000 crown support to be cancelled unless Russian intervention in Ukraine ceases. TOP 09’s Jan Vitula said support for a Russian cultural week now would be like holding a Richard Wagner week in 1938. Wagner was Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer and his descendants were enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi regime. The South Moravia region has reacted by saying that culture should be separated from politics.

President Miloš Zeman says he will ask discuss the idea of the Czech Roman Catholic Church using some of the money it is receiving under restitution to fund hospices when he meets the Pope. Mr. Zeman, who is due to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in April, made the comment on a visit to the Hradec Králové Region, describing an interest in hospices as his “hobby”. Under legislation approved in 2012 after a divisive debate, assets seized from churches by the Communists valued at CZK 75 billion are being handed back, while more than CZK 60 billion in financial compensation will go to the churches over a 30-year period in lieu of properties not being returned.

The police are preparing to ask the state prosecutor to file murder charges against former nurse Věra Marešová over the deaths of six patients at a hospital in the small North Bohemian town of Rumburk. Investigators had been looking into 11 deaths at the facility. It was reported in September last year that the nurse may have committed a mercy killing by giving an elderly patient an overdose of potassium, sparking a debate on euthenasia. However, that theory was soon ruled out and the investigation was widened.