• Pravo: Police president could be replaced
    01/31/2007

    The president of the Czech Republic's police force, Vladislav Husak, could be removed, Pravo reported. The interior minister, Ivan Langer, dismissed a suggestion he would replace Mr Husak with Martin Kotlan; however, the minister added that nothing was definitive. Mr Kotlan was deputy police president from 1998 to 2002.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Footballer Zapotocny joins Italy's Udinese
    01/31/2007

    Footballer Tomas Zapotocny has left Slovan Liberec for the Italian Serie A club Udinese. Zapotocny has played three times for the Czech Republic. The defender is the second Czech signed by Udinese during January's transfer window; the club recently bought Tomas Sivok from Sparta Prague.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • O'Reilly: US has additional options regarding radar, rocket bases
    01/30/2007

    A Pentagon official from the US Missile Defence programme has indicated that the United States has other options if proposed radar and rocket installations do not find backing in the Czech Republic and Poland. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Brigadier General Patrick O'Reilly expressed optimism over the plan's implementation, saying that within a number of years the system could be fully-operational. The US is to begin negotiations with the Czech Republic on a missile defence radar site that would complement a proposed rocket base in Poland.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Protest against US radar base goes ahead despite ban
    01/30/2007

    In related news, opponents of the US radar base in the Czech Republic took part in a protest event in Prague on Monday evening. Their march through the city centre went ahead despite a ban by Prague city hall. Some two thousand people are estimated to have taken part. Civic groups and associations who organized the march say that the presence of a US radar base in the Czech Republic would harm the country's security interests. They have called for a referendum on the issue.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Debate on EU constitution, US base not included in lower house agenda
    01/30/2007

    The opposition Social Democrats failed on Tuesday to push through a proposal in the lower house for a parliamentary debate discussing the Czech position on the EU constitution. A proposal by the Communist Party that the lower house discuss the possibility of a US radar base in the Czech Republic also did not pass. Both were rejected by votes from the ruling coalition. The Chamber of Deputies deputy chairman Lubomir Zaoralek said he expected the issue of EU constitution to be raised again in the near future.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Autopsy confirms Svoboda suicide
    01/30/2007

    Following autopsy results, police have confirmed that the death of composer Karel Svoboda on Sunday was indeed a case of suicide. The body of the 68-year-old Svoboda was found by his wife on Sunday evening at the couple's property in a Prague suburb. He had taken his life using a registered firearm. Karel Svoboda was a household name in the Czech Republic for more than thirty years: he wrote the music for numerous hit songs and also wrote well-known scores for films, musicals and theatre productions.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Brno to transfer Tugendhat villa to state to pave way for restitution
    01/30/2007

    Councillors at city hall in Brno, Moravia, have agreed that the Modernist Tugendhat villa, designed by legendary architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, should be transferred to the state. The move is intended to facilitate the building's eventual return to the Tugendhat family, the site's original owners. The Tugendhats, who are Jewish, lost the villa when they fled Czechoslovakia in 1938 ahead of the arrival of the Nazis. Family members have said that the building, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, will remain open to the public. It will have to undergo needed renovations.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Petrochemical holding group Unipetrol sells Kaucuk
    01/30/2007

    The petrochemical holding group Unipetrol has sold Kaucuk - a Czech chemicals firm - to Polish chemicals company Dwory for the equivalent of more than 250 million US dollars. The sale had been under negotiation for some time. Dwory, one of twenty-six companies that expressed interest in the original tender, is a strategic partner to Poland's PKN Orlen, the majority owner of Unipetrol. Some minority shareholders reportedly opposed the deal.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Aero Vodochody to layoff 450 employees
    01/30/2007

    The Czech plane manufacturer Aero Vodochody has announced plans to layoff 450 out of 1644 employees as part of restructuring measures this year. The announcement was made by the company's head of personnel on Tuesday. Employees laid off will be given five or even six months severance pay as well as retraining to help in their jobs search. Aero Vodochody expects to post a loss of around 1 billion crowns for 2006, the equivalent of around 46 million US dollars.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Regional court hands down tougher sentences for police officers
    01/30/2007

    The regional court in Brno has handed down sentences of two years in prison to two police officers found guilty of beating up and mentally torturing a fourteen-year-old Romany boy. The court stiffened suspended sentences handed down last year by a city court, originally appealed by both the defendants and the prosecution. According to the court, the officers harassed the victim and one of his friends, but let the other boy go. The remaining boy was then beaten up. An officer twice aimed an unloaded firearm at the boy's head and pulled the trigger.
    Author: Jan Velinger

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