News

The Czech retail watchdog intends to slap the French supermarket giant Carrefour with a heavy fine for misleading shoppers in a major post-Christmas sale campaign. The director of the Czech Trade Inspectorate Jiri Pekny said Carrefour was guilty of breaking the consumers law by announcing price cuts from inflated initial prices and charging customers more than the advertised sale prices at check-outs. Trade inspectors visited the company's ten stores in the Czech Republic after receiving hundreds of complaints from customers in a single day. Carrefour denies the allegations.

The Czech public has donated almost 150 million crowns (around 5 million euros) to relief in Southeast Asia. A spokesperson for aid agency People in Need said it was the biggest collection to help overseas disaster victims in the history of the Czech Republic. The Czech government has sent 15 million crowns in aid, and pledged another 200 million for redevelopment in the region.

Telephone surveillance is not more common in the Czech Republic than in other European countries, according to a new report presented by police chief Jiri Kolar and Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan on Friday. It was commissioned on the instigation of President Vaclav Klaus, after a number of high profile cases of alleged phone tapping. Civic Democrat MP Jiri Bily says the study is not objective or independent because it was carried out by the police themselves; he has called on the Justice Ministry to begin a fresh inquiry.

Over a week after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Southeast Asia, one Czech has been confirmed dead and the number of Czechs still unaccounted for remains at 15. There is strong suspicion that seven of them are also dead. The Czech government has pledged to donate 15 million crowns, eight million of which has already been released, for immediate relief to the affected areas. A further 200 million crowns (6.7 million euros) is to be offered for the restoration of the regions.

Czech charitable organisations have raised over one hundred million crowns (over 3 million euros) and the 19 percent VAT deducted from donor SMS messages will also be given to Asia. Some Czech banks have decided to forgo certain service charges on donations.

Of the Czech tourists who have returned from the stricken areas, eleven were taken to Prague's Bulovka hospital to undergo thorough medical check-ups. Four of them, suffering from diarrhoea, were hospitalised after doctors feared they had contracted infectious diseases. On Thursday, all patients were confirmed healthy.