News

On the eve of Thursday's scheduled doctors' strike, Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek called on the private practitioners to cancel their strike. After Wednesday's negotiations with health insurance companies, Mr Paroubek said he expected some accommodating steps from them, too. Private doctors in the Czech Republic are going to strike on Thursday over chronically late payments from the state-run insurance company VZP.

The chairman of the opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats, Mirek Topolanek, has said his party will support a Senate-proposed amendment to the criminal code banning all promotion of the communist ideology. The amendment was initiated by a group of opposition Senators and a movement called "Let's Ban the Communists". Mr Topolanek said he didn't wish the Communists to return to power after next year's elections. He said however that the amendment would probably be refused by the lower house where the leftist parties, the Communists and the Social Democrats, have a majority of 11 seats. The Communist Party currently enjoys some 13.5 percent of voter support.

According to a report by the UN Children's Fund released on Wednesday disabled children in Eastern Europe continue to be confined in segregated facilities and special schools, suffering from stigma and discrimination. The report says that although the approach to disabled children in the region has been improving, there is not enough state support. Experts say that the fact that so many children are placed in institutions reflects economic desperation which leads struggling families to put their children in care for want of alternatives, as well as a traditional communist-era attitude that institutionalisation is the best solution.

Iraq has asked for the Czech military police contingent stationed in Basra to extend its stay in the country. Visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani made the request during talks with the Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek on Tuesday. The Iraqi president said that Czech military police instructors had an excellent reputation in his country and Iraq would appreciate if the training could continue for another year. The Czech Parliament is expected to vote on extending the contingent's mission.

President Talabani began an official tour of Europe on Monday with the Czech Republic as his first port of call. At a state dinner given in his honour at Prague Castle he and President Vaclav Klaus discussed the situation in Irak and the Czech role in ongoing reconstruction efforts. The Czech Republic has earmarked 1.9 billion crowns or 78 million dollars on the reconstruction of Iraq. Part of the money was spent on humanitarian aid, the operation of a Czech field hospital in Basra and a training programme for Iraqi police officers.