News

Influential businessman Ivo Rittig has lost an appeal against a court ruling that the minister of foreign affairs, Lubomír Zaorálek, does not have to apologise to him for calling him a robber. Prague’s Supreme Court on Tuesday also rejected Mr. Rittig’s demand for financial compensation of CZK 100,000 from the minister. However, a previous ruling remains in place under which Mr. Zaorálek must apologise for linking Mr. Rittig to a large amount of cash and gold seized in a police raid last year. Mr. Rittig is under investigation over a case involving the supply of public transport tickets in Prague, the asset-stripping of a company and the leak of information from the intelligence service.

The Astronomical Institute of the Czech Republic has asked members of the public for help in looking for parts of a meteor, classified as a bolide, which lit up the evening sky over the region of Vysočina last Tuesday. The meteor broke up in different pieces and is thought to have fallen near Ždár nad Sazavou. An observatory in Veselí nad Moravou captured an extraordinary image of the celestial object. Upon entering the atmosphere the bolide is estimated to have weighed around 200 kilograms before breaking up.

Police have remanded in custody a man suspected of killing a former classmate in Brno last week. The murder took place overran argument about 500 crowns (18 euros) - part of a loan the suspect opted not to return to the victim but wanted to save for the weekend, Czech website iDnes writes. When they argued, the borrower killed the other man, who was 22, with an axe from his apartment. It took the police several days to catch up with the suspect. He faces between 15 – 20 years in prison or could receive an exemplary sentence.

The Czech Republic’s European Commissioner Věra Jourová will meet with the cabinet of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka quarterly to drum up support for initiatives as well as to fill in the government on the latest developments in Brussels. The minister, whose portfolio includes gender equality, also wants ministers from the ANO movement to change their mind and support EU quotas for women on supervisory committees and administrative boards for large state companies. The proposal for quotas was originally proposed by Ms Jourová’s predecessor Viviane Reding and called for 40 percent of members to be women. The aim is to implement the measure by 2018; some 5,000 companies would be affected, according to the Czech News Agency. In the Czech Republic it would be around eight companies, the commissioner has said.