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05/27/2005
Customs officials have stated that in recent years a greater abundance of illegal drugs smuggled into the Czech Republic have come from the Netherlands. Illegal substances have included the drug pervetin, a methamphetamine. This year successful recoveries by customs officials included uncovering more than 2 kilograms of ecstasy as well as a quarter kilogram of heroin found on a bus from Amsterdam headed for the city of Brno. In 2004 customs officials uncovered 59 cases of drugs smuggling by car, and 37 by bus including a discovery of 25 kilograms of 100 percent pure heroin.
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05/27/2005
This Saturday 12 areas in the Czech Republic will mark the so-called Den Boubelky - the country's first-ever "Chubbies' Day" - aimed at increasing weight awareness and related health problems. The day has been organised by a club wishing to help overweight Czechs shed extra pounds. According to some experts between 22 percent of Czech men and 25 percent Czech women suffer from obesity and some studies show that Czechs rate the third highest in obesity in Europe.
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05/26/2005
The Czech prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, has threatened to ban President Vaclav Klaus from travelling abroad if the president contradicts the government's foreign policy. The prime minister said Mr Klaus - who is opposed to European integration and the EU constitution - was a servant of the state who should reflect the position of the cabinet, which sets foreign policy under the Czech constitution. The government approves all trips by the president in what is normally a routine decision.
Earlier this week Mr Paroubek said in an interview with London's Financial Times that the president was exceeding his constitutional powers by campaigning against the EU constitution. Ratifying the document is one of the government's key policy objectives.
Mr Klaus's party the Civic Democrats have called on the prime minister to explain his comments in the lower house. The party has likened Mr Paroubek's statement to the practices of the Communist regime, saying it was an attempt to stifle free debate on an important issue which affected all Czech citizens.
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05/26/2005
Meanwhile, ex-president Vaclav Havel has spoken in defence of former dissidents who protested against a statement by President Klaus; he warned of the dangers of unelected non-governmental organisations influencing public life. Mr Havel - who is himself the country's best known former dissident - said his old allies were seen by some as society's bad conscience. He said they were proof that it was possible to behave differently and not conform. The former president is currently in Washington, where he is just completing a two-month study stay.
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05/26/2005
Investigative reporter Sabina Slonkova has been given the Karel Havlicek Borovsky award for journalism. Ms Slonkova, who writes for the daily Hospordarske noviny, was herself in the news two years ago when the police foiled a plan to kill her by former Foreign Ministry official Karel Srba; he ordered a contract killing after she reported on some of his dubious dealings at the ministry.
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05/26/2005
Fares on public transport in Prague are to rise significantly from next month, the city's municipal authority has announced. The cost of a single non-transfer ticket will increase from 12 to 20 crowns (or from around 50 US cents to almost a dollar). Critics say the price rises could lead to more people using cars in the city.
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05/26/2005
Vladimir Smicer and Milan Baros have become the first Czechs to play in the final of the football's biggest club competition, the Champions League. Smicer scored a fine goal for Liverpool and also converted the club's final penalty in a shoot out after the game against AC Milan ended 3:3. After six years at Liverpool, the 32-year-old is set to leave in the summer, while Milan Baros, who is 24, may also join a new club.
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05/25/2005
The Czech Government is hoping to remove a controversial pig farm in South Bohemia that stands on the site of a former concentration camp by buying it off its owners. During WWII, over one thousand Roma were interned in the Czech-run camp and 326 - many of them children - died under inhumane conditions. The operation of the pig farm, which has stood on the site since the 1970s has been criticised by many, including the European Parliament in an April resolution against the discrimination of the Roma.
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05/25/2005
The Czech singer Helena Vondrackova has won a court case against the tabloid daily Blesk. The paper had printed an article in which it claimed that Mrs Vondrackova was unable to have children because of an abortion gone wrong a few years ago. The court has ordered the daily to print an apology on its front page and pay Mrs Vondrackova 250,000 Czech crowns (10,600 US dollars) in compensation.
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05/25/2005
The General Director of Czech Radio, Vaclav Kasik, has been elected for another six-year term. Mr Kasik, who stood against head of Czech Radio 1 - Radiozurnal Alexandr Picha and head of the Czech Radio Regina station, Richard Medek, has been in the post of general director since 1999. His second term begins on July 1.
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