• Government requests extradition from Liberia of fugitive Czech arms trader
    01/15/2005

    The government has requested that Liberia extradite Czech national Dalibor Kopp, who is wanted on charges of illegal arms trading. Kopp, who fled the Czech Republic in December to avoid prosecution, was arrested last week by United Nations peacekeeping forces stationed in Libya. He is accused of knowingly selling arms to Iraq despite an arms embargo and trying to cover his trail by first exporting the arms to Yemen. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Three women rob eighty-year-old woman at knifepoint
    01/15/2005

    An 80-year-old woman was robbed in her home near the famous spa town of Karlovy Vary by three women who had gained entry into the disabled woman's apartment by posing as employees of the postal service. They pensioner was robbed at knifepoint of 500 crowns. In recent years, pensioners living alone have been regularly targeted for robbery and been victims of fraud.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Czech wanted for illegal arms trade arrested in Liberia
    01/14/2005

    A Czech wanted for illegal arms trade has been arrested in Liberia. Dalibor Kopp who was charged with illegal export of ammunition to Iraq was detained by UN peacekeeping forces on the basis of an international arrest warrant this week and was brought to a court in Liberia on Wednesday. Kopp fled the Czech Republic at the end of December to avoid prosecution. In 1995 he held talks with Arab traders on the export of ammunition to the Middle East. To cover up the deal, the ammunition was bought by a company in Yemen which subsequently sold it to Iraq.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Mayor ripped off by Prague taxi driver
    01/14/2005

    Prague mayor Pavel Bem was ripped off by a taxi driver who failed to recognize him in a tourist disguise. The Mlada Fronta Dnes daily, which has been waging a campaign against dishonest Prague taxi drivers, persuaded the mayor to dye his hair black, slick it back and put on a pair of expensive sunglasses, before jumping into the nearest city taxi. Asking for a short ride in Prague's city centre the mayor found himself in a taxi with a rigged meter and was subsequently charged six times the normal rate. The driver faces a steep fine and in the event of re-offending he could lose his permit.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Government wants to reduce mortgage support
    01/14/2005

    The government is planning to reduce mortgage support for people with higher incomes. Local Development Minister Jiri Paroubek told journalists on Friday that tax deductibles on mortgage loans would not be abolished, as previously planned, but just reduced. Currently people can deduct up to 300, 000 crowns annually from their tax base, a level of state support that Paroubek considers to be "overly generous". The planned changes should come into effect as of January 2006. In mid 2003, Czechs had 117 thousand mortgage loans to the tune of 128 billion crowns.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Former Union Banka managers released from custody
    01/14/2005

    The Ostrava state attorney on Friday released from custody four former managers of the bankrupt Union Banka. They have been charged with breach of trust in property administration and granting disadvantageous loans, which stripped the bank of three billion crowns. The state attorney said that the three months custody period had expired and there was no longer reason to fear that they would try to influence witnesses. According to investigators, the bank managers granted risky loans to their friends in the period between 1999 and 2003. If convicted, they face a sentence of up to eight years in prison.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Drug dealers hoping to be released on Thai amnesty
    01/14/2005

    Two Czech drug dealers who were sentenced to 50 years in prison in Thailand for smuggling heroin, now hope to be released on the grounds of an amnesty declared there last year. The two men each spent several years in a Thai prison before being transferred to a Czech prison last year. One of the men is reported to be in seriously bad health.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Number of missing Czechs in Southeast Asia drops to ten
    01/13/2005

    The number of Czechs still missing in Southeast Asia has dropped to 10, after a tourist in Burma contacted her family on Thursday. Six of the missing are believed to be dead and only one Czech casualty has been confirmed so far. The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, DNA samples of each missing Czech will be on the next plane to Thailand.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Government asks parliament to extend Iraq mission
    01/13/2005

    The Czech government has asked parliament to approve extending the mission of just under a hundred Czech military police stationed in Iraq. They are due to return at the end of next month, but the government now recommends that they stay till the end of the year. They are based in southern Iraq where they are helping to train Iraqi police. President Vaclav Klaus has said that he supports the extension, which will cost around 175 million crowns (just over 7 million US dollars) from the Defence Ministry budget.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Constitutional Court rules Opocno Chateau is to be returned to the state
    01/13/2005

    The Constitutional Court has overruled a district and regional court, which returned the state-owned Opocno Chateau to the Colloredo-Mansfeld family. The aristocratic family, which has been fighting a ten-year court battle to win back the property, says it will appeal against the ruling at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg.

    The Opocno Chateau and surrounding grounds in East Bohemia were seized by the Nazis in 1942 and later nationalised by the post-war Czechoslovak state. The Colloredo-Mansfeld family argue they were denied the right to claim back the property because they were wrongly labelled Nazi collaborators after the war.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

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