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04/27/2009
Outgoing interior minister Ivan Langer is to ask the cabinet for another 90 million crowns (4.43 million USD) to fund a controversial government scheme sending foreign workers who have recently been made redundant home. The scheme, which was launched in February, offers foreigners who have lost their jobs a free plane ticket home and a lump-sum of 500 euros to cover expenses. On Monday, Mr Langer told newspaper Hospodářské noviny that 1,400 of the 2,000 places allocated had already been filled, and that he would ask the cabinet for more money to broaden the scheme on May 4. So far, the voluntary repatriation programme has been especially popular amongst the Czech Republic’s Mongolian minority. Earlier this month, the interior minister said that he would like to widen the scheme to encompass those who have been living and working in the Czech Republic illegally.
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04/27/2009
Trust in the Czech economy rose in April for the second month running by 4.2 points, according to the Czech Statistical Office. In March, trust in the economy rose by 1.7 points. This is only the second time in more than a year that trust in the economy has risen for two consecutive months, the Statistical Office’s data showed. However, trust is down year-on-year by a massive 28.2 points, statisticians said. Consumers questioned by the bureau suggested that they expected a slight economic upturn over the coming 12 months, a spokesperson for the Statistical Office did say, however, that those questioned also anticipated a further rise in the rate of unemployed.
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04/27/2009
The head of the opposition Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, has maintained that he thinks the post of human rights and minorities minister should be abolished in the interim government of Jan Fischer, which is set to take office on May 9. On Monday, Mr Paroubek said that the ministry was currently completely without a concept, and that, first of all, the ministry should be clearly defined, and only then should someone be appointed to fill the post. Mr Paroubek’s views on the ministry have come under fire from the deputy head of his own party, Lubomir Zaorálek, and outgoing Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra, who both said on Sunday that it should be re-evaluated whether to abolish the post or not. Jan Fischer’s interim government will be made up of experts nominated both by the opposition Social Democrats and the outgoing government coalition.
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04/27/2009
The Czech Republic has beaten Norway 5:2 in the team’s second game at the ice hockey world championships in Switzerland on Monday evening. Goals were scored by Marek, Čajánek, Vašíček, Blaťák and Klepiš. The win follows the Czechs’ victory over Denmark 5:0 on Sunday, the team’s final match in the group stages of the competition will be against Finland on Wednesday. The Czech Republic has won the tournament on five occasions, the last being in 2005.
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04/26/2009
Around 70 neo-Nazis demonstrated in front of the Interior Ministry in Prague on Sunday against the expulsion of a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan from the Czech Republic. David Duke was arrested and handed an expulsion order by Czech police shortly after arriving in the Czech capital on Friday for denying the Holocaust in his book My Awakening. Speakers at Sunday’s protest said Mr Duke had not himself denied the Holocaust, but asserted the right of others to do so. The demonstration was organised by Filip Vávra of the neo-Nazi group Národní odpor (National Resistance), who brought the former KKK head to the Czech Republic.
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04/26/2009
A collection has begun to raise money for a Romany family whose daughter was seriously injured in a fire-bomb attack on their home last weekend. The appeal was launched by the regional authority in north Moravia, where the family live. The girl, who is two, is fighting for her life after suffering burns on 80 percent of her body, while both of her parents are also being treated in hospital for burns. Their one-storey house and its contents were destroyed in the attack, which took place in the town of Vítkov and is still being investigated.
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04/26/2009
The minister for human rights and minorities, Michael Kocáb, says he would like to invite former president Václav Havel and the Czech Republic’s chief rabbi Karol Sidon to join a team to discuss solutions to the problem of far-right extremism in the country. On a TV discussion programme, Mr Kocáb said a group should be created to address the subject made up of leading sociologists, theologians, lawyers and political scientists. Prior to being replaced by a caretaker government on May 8, the current cabinet is due to deliver a new strategy to combat extremism. The move follows a number of far-right demonstrations and the attack in Vítkov.
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04/26/2009
The Czech Republic and Slovakia are to have common representatives at two important international financial institutions. A Czech official will represent the two states’ interests at the World Bank, while a Slovak counterpart will do likewise at the International Monetary Fund. The positions will be switched after four years. Sixteen years after they split, the Czech Republic and Slovakia signed a treaty on the matter at a World Bank-IMF meeting in Washington in Saturday. Up to now both countries had their own representatives at the two institutions. The change is designed to save money.
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04/26/2009
The Czech minister for European affairs, Alexandr Vondra, says he will discuss with the artist David Černý the possibility of the controversial sculpture Entropa remaining in Brussels until the end of the Czech presidency of the European Union on June 30. Mr Černý has said he will remove the work eight weeks early in protest at the toppling of the Czech government less than half way through the six-month presidency. The large sculpture – which plays with European stereotypes – should come down within days of the appointment of a caretaker cabinet. Speaking on a TV debate show on Sunday, Mr Vondra said it was popular in Brussels. He added, however, that it was the right of the artist to decide what to do with his work.
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04/26/2009
Large concrete barriers which have been in place in front of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty building in the centre of Prague are set to be removed in the second half of June, the news website novinky.cz reported. The barricades were placed around the building in 2001, following terrorist attacks on the United States. The American-funded station has been gradually moving to a specially constructed new building in the Hagibor district in the suburbs of the Czech capital.
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