News

The High Court in Olomouc has fined a night club operator in the north Moravian town of Ostrava because his establishment refused to serve some Roma customers. Jiri Ozdinec must now pay 5000 Czech crowns and send a written apology to each of three Romanies whom his staff would not serve when they entered his club six years ago. Mr Ozdinec had originally been ordered by a lower court to apologise and pay 50,000 crowns compensation but he appealed the verdict.

Coalition leaders are to meet later today to decide the fate of Deputy Prime Minister and Christian Democrat chairman Jiri Cunek who is charged with corruption. The case has dragged on for weeks now and despite growing pressure on him to resign Mr. Cunek has refused to do so. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Monday that Mr. Cunek's continued presence in government was untenable and that the door would be open for him to return if he was able to clear his name. The Green Party has also indicated that Jiri Cunek's presence in the cabinet is unwelcome. The Christian Democratic Party leadership, which has stood by its chairman throughout the crisis, said on Tuesday it would leave the decision in Mr. Cunek's hands. Mr Cunek is accused of taking a bribe when he was mayor of the town of Vsetin five years ago.

The Czech government has called on Belarus to release some seventy protesters who were arrested during a demonstration against President Alexander Lukashenko's regime on Sunday. "We call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and for the respect of human rights and democratic values in Belarus," the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Police and paratroopers on Sunday prevented up to 1,500 Lukashenko opponents from protesting in the same Minsk square where unprecedented rallies shook the former Soviet republic a year ago. The Czech Foreign Ministry said that Sunday's crack down on protesters in Minsk Square had once again confirmed the non-democratic nature of Alexander Lukashenko's regime. The Belarussian president has been in power since 1994. He was re-elected last year but international observers said the vote was rigged.

It has come to light that two twelve year old girls attempted to commit suicide late last year because of class bullying. The girls apparently slashed their wrists but were found in time by their parents. The case has been brought to light by the Mlada Fronta Dnes daily in connection with the growing incidence of bullying in Czech schools and so called happy-slapping, a relatively new phenomenon in the Czech Republic. Surveys suggest that around 40 percent of primary school children have experienced some form of bullying.