News

A court in the north Bohemian city of Usti nad Labem has ruled the municipality does not have to pay any compensation to the Cervenaks, a Romani family that was suing the city for damages allegedly suffered in 1993. For the Cervenak family the heart of the dispute was the loss of city-owned apartments that followed after family members moved to Slovakia. When family members began returning to Usti nad Labem within a matter of days, they found they were unable to return to their original homes.

Cervenak family members contended they were never properly compensated for the property they had given up, although they were later given some accommodation by the city after the president's office intervened, and received 900, 000 crowns from the Czech state in an out-of-court settlement after the family took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Five out of eight family members withdrew their current lawsuit in Usti nad Labem last month, leaving just three plaintiffs in Monday's ruling. The trio had been asking for compensation of 8 million crowns, or roughly 270, 000 euros.

The Temelin nuclear power station has reported a reduction in output on the first unit following problems with cooling. Temelin staff reportedly discovered leaks in the generator cooling circuits in the non-nuclear part of the power station.

The defects may take a week or longer to repair. The second unit is running on full output.

The Czech coalition government is finalizing the details of the draft state budget for 2005. After coalition leaders agreed to reduce the budget deficit by ten billion crowns last week, Cabinet ministers are now debating where the money should be saved. Several ministries have offered to make budget cuts but the Cabinet is still about two and a half billion crowns short of the target figure. Christian Democratic Party leader Miroslav Kalousek has urged ministers to consider further reducing the number of state employees. The draft budget proposal is expected to be ready by Tuesday.

The first fifty members of a Czech reconnaissance unit who took part in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan have returned home. The rest of the 100 member unit are expected back in the course of the next three days. For six months the unit helped to search for members of Al Qaida in the Taliban mountains at an altitude of 4,000 metres above sea level. They allegedly received high praise from the allied command, but Parliament decided against extending the mission. In a related development, it was confirmed earlier this week that Czech troops may work with a German military team to help prepare infrastructure and security in Northern Afghanistan for October's presidential election. The Czech Republic is prepared to make 40 soldiers available in the near future.