• Over 127,000 citizens of other EU countries work in CR
    05/20/2007

    According to data released by the Labour Ministry, over 127,000 citizens of other EU countries are currently working in the Czech Republic, which is a 23-percent increase compared to last year. Most of them work in healthcare and education as well as industry. The largest groups are the citizens of Slovakia, Poland and Germany. In April, close to 200,000 foreigners worked legally in the Czech Republic. According to estimates, another tens of thousands are employed illegally.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Kupka painting sold at record price
    05/20/2007

    A painting by the abstract artist Frantisek Kupka broke the local auction record for a work by a Czech painter when it was sold for 13.4 million crowns (around 643,000 dollars) at a Prague auction on Sunday. The starting price for the work, "Abstract Composition," was 8.5 million crowns. The previous record for a Czech painting auctioned locally was set last December when a collector paid 9.3 million crowns for a work by Josef Capek, who was a cubist before developing his own primitive style in the 1920's and 1930's.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Juventus star Nedved mulls future
    05/20/2007

    Juventus's Czech midfield star Pavel Nedved will decide by the end of June whether to end his top flight football career, the CTK news agency reported on Sunday. The former Czech captain's contract runs out next year. The 34-year-old Czech added that he felt he owed Junventus a debt this season to get them back into Italy's top flight after the famous Turin club was demoted to the second division following a match fixing scandal. Nedved moved to Italy from Sparta Prague in 1996, playing for Lazio Rome before his move to Juventus.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Cardinal Vlk to remain head of Czech Catholic Church
    05/19/2007

    Prague Archbishop, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, remains the head of the Czech Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI has not accepted a resignation Cardinal Vlk tendered prior to reaching 75 years of age. The Pope's decision was announced after a mass in St Vitus Cathedral on Saturday morning. Miloslav Vlk became Prague Archbishop in 1991; in November 1994 he was appointed Cardinal.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Search for missing girl continues, confusion over identity remains
    05/19/2007

    Police in South Moravia continue searching for a 13-year old girl who went missing from a children's home in Brno a week ago. She was placed there after her foster mother was charged with severely abusing her eight-year old son and was remanded in custody. A spokeswoman said police are now studying documents they found when they raided a number of homes belonging to the family's relatives and friends. The missing girl's identity still remains unclear; the family say that Anna is the daughter of a drug addict who abandoned her. DNA tests are to rule out the possibility that Anna is related to the family or that she is in fact Karolina Plana, a girl who went missing 10 years ago and would now be 14 years of age.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Trade unions to stage protests against public finance reform
    05/19/2007

    The Czech Confederation of Trade Unions has announced it will hold a protest demonstration against the government-proposed package of public finance reforms. The protest is to take place in Prague on June 23. The confederation's chairman Milan Stech announced the plan after Saturday's national conference in Prague. Mr Stech, who is also a senator for the Social Democrats, says the planned reform will significantly decrease the tax burden for high-income groups and will badly affect young families and people with medium or low incomes.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Parliament speakers from EU countries to meet next weekend
    05/19/2007

    The chairmen of the lower house and the Senate, Miloslav Vlcek and Premysl Sobotka, will meet their EU counterparts next week to discuss the future of the European constitutional treaty and reforms of the block. The conference of parliament speakers from EU member states will be held on May 26th and 27th in the Slovak capital Bratislava. The participants are also expected to discuss the roles and positions of national parliaments in EU countries and the issue of national versus European identity.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • MEP Zahradil says Czech 'submissive' days in EU are over
    05/19/2007

    The Czech negotiator for a future EU treaty, MEP Jan Zahradil, says the Czech Republic has discarded its past "submissive" posture within the EU to make its voice heard. In an interview for Saturday's Mlada fronta Dnes, Mr Zahradil said the Czech Republic had "changed from the submissive and servile yes-man stance" under previous left-wing government into "a self-confident country which clearly and reasonably formulates its own views on the union's future". The Czech Republic opposes any wide-ranging revamp of the EU's institutional framework while Germany, the current president of the 27-member EU, wants agreement on an ambitious new treaty at an EU summit next month. Mr Zahradil, a Civic Democratic Party member, also says he does not expect a new European constitution, after an earlier draft was rejected in French and Dutch referenda in 2004.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Belarus opposition leader thanks Havel over UN vote
    05/19/2007

    Belarus opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich praised former Czech president Vaclav Havel and fellow activists for helping to prevent Minsk gain a seat on the UN's Human Rights Council, the CTK news agency reported on Friday. Mr Milinkevich said special thanks were due to Mr Havel, to the Czech branch of the Human Rights Watch, the Czech NGO People in Need and to Civic Belarus, after Minsk's bid for a seat was defeated in a vote on Thursday. Mr Havel called for UN countries to reject Belarus's candidacy, saying that its own human rights record was "a source of constant concern" and that its bid represented "an insult to all Belarussians passionate about liberty." Vaclav Havel, a former leader of the Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in former Czechoslovakia in 1989, is a member of the Civic Belarus association. The playwright has been a constant critic of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, sometimes dubbed "Europe's last dictator."
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Foreign Ministry: Czech mountaineer dies on Everest
    05/19/2007

    A Czech mountaineer died during the ascent of the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, this week, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Saturday. The time and circumstances of the death of the 47-year-old Czech man are unclear. According to available information, he was the sole Czech in an international expedition and he died at a camp at 8300 metres above sea level. The Czech Republic's ambassador to India and Nepal, Hynek Kmonicek, told Czech Radio that there were currently no plans to transport the climber's body to the Czech Republic.

    Prague Mayor Pavel Bem, climbing with a different team, reached the summit of Mount Everest on Friday, the tenth Czech to reach the world's highest peak. He is now on a two-day descent to his base camp.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

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