• Unemployment falls to below 10 percent
    11/10/2003

    The Labour and Social Affairs Ministry has said that unemployment has fallen to below 10 percent. A spokesman for the ministry said unemployment had dropped from 10.1 per cent in September to 9.9 per cent in October. The fall was greater than analysts had predicted, with just over half a million people now out of work. Economists said the floods of 2002 had undermined the Czech economy and that economic activity was displaying a comeback.
    Author: Rob Cameron

  • Food prices push Czech inflation slightly higher, reversing trend
    11/10/2003

    The Czech Statistics Office said higher prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks pushed consumer prices slightly higher in October, reversing a recent trend. Prices, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), gained 0.1 per cent in October compared with September and rose 0.4 per cent from the level registered in October 2002.
    Author: Rob Cameron

  • Customs seize large amount of fake brand goods
    11/09/2003

    Czech customs officers have seized over 20 tonnes of apparently fake brand products at a open-air market at the Hate border crossing in South Moravia. The goods included clothing and shoes as well as pirated CDs and DVDs, worth an estimated 25 million crowns. This was another in a series of raids on border markets aimed at stemming out trade with smuggled and fake brand products.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • First doctor expelled from doctors' association
    11/09/2003

    The Czech Medical Chamber has for the first time expelled its member, gynaecologist Vaclav Jordan from the city of Brno. The man treated colon cancer in one of his patients although he did not have the required special post-graduate education for oncology. Besides wrongly diagnosing the diseases as more serious than it actually was, he kept invoicing a health insurance company for the expensive treatment even after the patient joined another doctor. He will not be allowed to pursue his profession and will only be able to join the Medical Chamber again in five years. He can challenge the verdict at the court. The police have charged Doctor Jordan with serious bodily harm and fraud.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • Ice hockey - Czechs second at Karyala cup
    11/09/2003

    The Czechs ended second at the Karyala cup tournament when they beat Russia 3-2 on Sunday. The Czechs managed to defend the silver medal from last year. Russia ended third.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • Christian Democrats to elect new leadership
    11/08/2003

    The centrist Christian Democratic Party, a junior member of the Czech ruling coalition, is holding its annual meeting this weekend to elect new leaders. The current chairman, foreign minister Cyril Svoboda, has led the party for more than two years and is running for the post again, with slightly higher chances of succeeding than his three rivals.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • Army closes down field hospital to reduce costs
    11/08/2003

    The Czech army has closed down its sixth field hospital, which won recognition for its deployment in the Balkan conflict, in Albania, in Turkey ravaged by an earth quake, and especially in Afghanistan where it operated shortly after the ousting of Taliban, and most recently in Iraq. The daily Mlada fronta Dnes quoted Defence Minister Miroslav Kostelka as blaming empty coffers. He admitted though that it was a very painful step but said the Czech Republic could not afford to keep three military field hospitals, so it was scrapping one.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • Forced Labourers Union to dissolve
    11/08/2003

    The Czech union of WWII forced labourers has decided to dissolve itself after 14 years of existence next June. The union has around 40 thousand members, most of whom are 80 or older. Chairman Karel Ruzicka said at the union's convention on Saturday that the leadership was no longer able to manage such a large organisation. At the same time, there was no one among the delegates willing to take over. Most of the WWII victims of Nazism are receiving full-scale compensation these days. Some members of the union, such as those forced by the Nazis to work in facilities producing the V1 and V2 rockets said they had been associating for years and would not stop after the union dissolves, even though many of them die every year.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • US trade mission visits Aero, promises to help find markets
    11/08/2003

    A delegation of US businessmen led by U.S. deputy trade secretary Joseph Bogosian visited Czech aircraft maker Aero Vodochody with the aim of helping the troubled company, in which US Boeing has a decisive influence, to find new markets. Bogosian said that growth is the only answer for Aero Vodochody and the Czech government and the US administration together with Boeing will cooperate to make Aero grow and to find new markets for L-159 planes. Aero Vodochody is already making supplies for Boeing's F-18 jet fighters. However, despite promises, the American investor has so far failed to find markets for Aero's own products, namely the sub-sonic L-159 multi-purpose combat aircraft.
    Author: Vladimír Tax

  • Senate freezes politicians' salaries
    11/06/2003

    The Senate has decided that the salaries of senior officials should be frozen for the next three years at 46,500 crowns. The bill was submitted by the coalition government as part of a package of public finance reforms. Initially, the Senate's constitutional law committee had proposed the pay should increase to close to 60,000 crowns per month on the grounds of lowering the difference between politicians' salaries and those in the civil service. The law on freezing the pay of elected representatives was passed in the Senate by 40 out of 69 senators present, after a heated debate between supporters of the government proposal and opponents of the present payment system.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

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