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05/16/2007
President Vaclav Klaus has published a new book criticising what he calls the "fashionable" issue of global warming. Speaking at Wednesday's launch of "A Blue not A Green Planet", Mr Klaus said those who blame climate change on human behaviour represent a threat to freedom. Environmental activists demonstrated against the president's views outside the book launch at Prague's Café Slavia; their protest featured a person in a Klaus mask saying the world was flat and no geographer could claim otherwise.
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05/16/2007
Meanwhile, architect Jan Kaplicky has hit back at Presidents Klaus's criticisms of his design for a new National Library building. Presenting the project to the Czech Senate, Mr Kaplicky countered a number of arguments put forward by the president. For instance, he rejected Mr Klaus's complaint that its windows could not be opened; Mr Kaplicky said that was common in modern libraries. The green, blob-like structure should be completed on Prague's Letna Plain by 2010.
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05/16/2007
Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has also commented on the matter. He has described Jan Kaplicky's design as interesting and original. Mr Havel said he was annoyed by what he called the very emotive debate surrounding the design. But he said city authorities should have launched a debate on how to rebuild the whole of Letna before the tender for the National Library building.
The International Union of Architects is looking into the tender process, after some claims that Mr Kaplicky's winning design did not meet all the conditions.
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05/16/2007
Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has admitted he discussed a government reform bill with Milos Zeman, the former leader of the opposition Social Democrats. The prime minister said Mr Zeman, who is retired, still had a great influence on many Social Democrat MPs. He said he hoped some might break party ranks and vote in favour of a bill which envisages significant changes to the tax and social welfare systems.
With the slimmest of majorities and one of Mr Topolanek's own Civic Democrat MPs threatening to rebel, every vote will be crucial. The prime minister says he will push for early elections if the bill fails.
On Wednesday the prime minister said he expected a tough battle to persuade his partners in the three-party coalition to support the reform package between now and next month's vote.
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05/16/2007
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk is celebrating his 75th birthday on Wednesday. However, the Roman Catholic Church's most senior representative in the Czech Republic says he still does not know if the pope will accept his request to retire. Cardinal Vlk said he had sent his resignation to Pope Benedict almost a month ago but had not yet received a reply. He said the pope might ask him to stay on for two or three more years.
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05/16/2007
A group of nine alleged people-smugglers were arrested in Prague on Tuesday. The group, led by a Lebanese national, are accused of helping Egyptians and Iraqis enter other European Union states from the Czech Republic. Foreign passports, automatic rifle, ammunition and a bullet-proof vest were among the items seized during police raids on the gang members' homes.
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05/16/2007
Beer production in the Czech Republic increased by 3.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, the Czech Brewers Union said on Wednesday. The industry body put the rise down to a relatively warm winter in the Czech Republic, though it said exports were also up.
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05/16/2007
The Czech women's tennis number one Nicole Vaidisova has had to pull out of the Italian Open in Rome due to tendonitis. The 18-year-old, who this week rose to a career-best seventh in the world rankings, was forced to withdraw from the German Open in Berlin last week with the same problem.
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05/15/2007
Police have deployed 60 more officers to search for a 13-year old girl who ran away from a children's home in Brno on Friday night where she had been placed earlier that day. The girl, called Anna, who reportedly suffers from social phobia and autism, had been previously staying in the house of a thirty-year old woman who was arrested last week after a neighbour discovered she kept her eight-year old son Ondrej naked and bound in the dark in a storage room. Ondrej is now in hospital care and is reported to be in a stable condition. His elder brother Jakub remains in a children's home.
Meanwhile police are trying to determine the true identity of the missing girl. It is also still unclear whether she left the children's home on her own, whether someone assisted her in her escape or whether she was kidnapped. The mother of the two boys and Anna's foster mother, Klara Mauerova, a child psychology student, has been remanded in custody and could face up to eight years in prison.
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05/15/2007
A Czech police officer who was injured during an attack on a Czech diplomat in Afghanistan earlier this month has been transported to Prague and underwent surgery on Tuesday to remove grenade fragments from his eye. He is now reported to be in a stable condition. The attack against a Czech diplomat in which his two Czech bodyguards suffered injuries happened on May 1. Rebels opened fire at a car carrying the head of the Czech diplomatic mission in Kabul Filip Velach. He escaped unharmed but three of the attackers were killed and two Czech bodyguards injured in the crossfire. The Czech embassy in Kabul re-opened in mid-April.
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