News

For the 15th year in a row, Czechs are celebrating Earth Day this weekend. There are a number of organized group bike rides happening throughout the country, and the Prague Zoo is hosting an event highlighting recycling. The leader of the Green Party, Martin Bursik, is taking part in public events; polls show that the Greens may gain enough votes to make it into parliament after the next elections. Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970 and it became an internationally recognized day in 1990.

The CTK news agency has reported that only a very small number of Czechs living abroad have registered to vote in the upcoming general elections before Sunday's deadline. The largest number, around 360, have registered both in Slovakia and the United States though estimates say tens of thousands of Czechs live in either country. Some 220 have applied in the Belgian capital Brussels, some 150 in Paris and just 60 in both Australia and New Zealand. Czechs living abroad had their first chance to cast their votes at Czech embassies in 2002. Out of an estimated 70,000 people entitled to vote, only 3,700 used the possibility.

German officials have accepted responsibility for an illegal waste dump in Libceves in North Bohemia. Following talks in Saxony on Thursday, the local authorities said they were prepared to pay for its removal. The issue of illegally imported waste from Germany has strained Czech-German relations in recent months and been addressed at the highest level. Since the beginning of the year, an estimated 20 thousand tonnes of German waste has been dumped in the Czech border areas. The Czech police have now charged six people, including a German citizen, over the illegal imports. If convicted they may be sent to five years in prison.

Meanwhile the Czech Environment Inspection Office has ordered the Bau 24 company to pay a fine of 10 million crowns (416,000 dollars) for illegally dumping rubbish in Libceves. The company's representative has appealed against the fine.

The lower house has again passed a bill on non-profit hospitals, drafted by the ruling Social Democrats and supported by the opposition Communists, as 107 out of the 171 deputies present overrode the Senate's veto on Friday. To become law, the bill has yet to be signed by President Vaclav Klaus. Critics of the bill on non-profit hospitals say it will harm patients and threaten the existence of some hospitals. Supporters of the legislation argue the new system will guarantee the availability of health care to everybody.