• Dismissal for police officers charged with abuse of power
    12/21/2004

    Two police officers charged with abuse of power have been dismissed from the police force. Zdenek Pichlik and Petr Sima, whose field was organized crime, were arrested by a team of inspectors from the Interior Ministry and have been in custody since Saturday.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Coalition cannot agree on new head for Supreme Audit Office
    12/21/2004

    The vacant position of head of the Czech Republic's Supreme Audit Office is unlikely to be filled during the term of the current government, Labour Minister Zdenek Skromach said on Tuesday. He said the three parties in the coalition were unable to agree on a replacement for Lubomir Volenik, who died almost 18 months ago.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Mobile operator Eurotel loses appeal against fine for abuse of dominant position
    12/21/2004

    Mobile phone operator Eurotel has failed in a court appeal against a fine of 48 million crowns (over 1.5 million euros) for abusing its dominant position on the Czech market. Eurotel and another operator Radiomobil were found guilty in 2002 of charging customers more for calls to a third operator than between their own networks.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • One senator spends more than half Senate travel budget: MfD
    12/21/2004

    More than half of the Senate's budget for flights has been spent by one member from north Moravia, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported Tuesday. Ondrej Feber, the senator for Karvina, said that he flew so often because he needed to be close to his voters.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Svoboda, Shalom discuss EU-Israeli relations
    12/20/2004

    The Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda who is on a three-day official visit to Israel has met his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom for talks on the relations between the EU and Israel. After the meeting Mr Svoboda said that every country has a right to defend its territory and its citizens. He also said that the Czech Republic supports the Israeli proposal to add the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to the European Union's list of terrorist organisations. Mr Svoboda also spoke in favour of an increased participation of the EU and NATO in the Middle East peace process.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Palas to run for Social Democrat chairman at March congress
    12/20/2004

    The Agriculture Minister Jaroslav Palas has said he will run for the post of deputy chairman of the Social Democrats at the party's congress in March. The two candidates for the post of chairman are the acting head of the party, Prime Minister Stanislav Gross and the Labour and Social Affairs Minister Zdenek Skromach. After a series of election defeats, the ruling coalition party's leadership says it needs to find strong personalities who would come up with a new programme and present it to the voters.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech police detain 19 illegal refugees from China
    12/20/2004

    Czech police say they have detained 19 illegal immigrants from China together with two smugglers at the Bila-Konecna border crossing between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The 18 men and one woman were found hiding in the boot of a van by police who were checking the vehicle, a police spokeswoman said. A week ago police in the region detained 10 illegal immigrants from Asia.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • "Pendolino" express train to carry first passengers
    12/20/2004

    Czech Railways' new express train, the "Pendolino", will carry its first passengers during a test ride on Thursday. A spokesman for Czech Railways said the company will test the train on several regular express routes in the coming months to complete its trial operation. As of next December, the Italian-made Pendolino is expected to be used on international lines. The train's speed record in the Czech Republic is 237 kilometres per hour.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Police chief: Phone bugging levels comparable to elsewhere in Europe
    12/19/2004

    The head of the Czech police force says a new police report has found the amount of telephone bugging in the Czech Republic is comparable to that in other European countries. Police chief Jiri Kolar said he had not been surprised by the results of the study, which was ordered after a phone tapping scandal. But Mr Kolar's opponent on a TV debate programme, Jiri Bily of the opposition Civic Democrats, questioned the report's conclusions.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • CSA reports 20 percent increase in number of passengers to New York
    12/19/2004

    Czech Airlines has announced an increase of over 20 percent in the number of passengers it is flying to New York, with a total of 155,000 people flying CSA to the city this year. A spokesperson for Czech Airlines said the fact more than half the tickets were sold in America meant the airline was by far the biggest Czech exporter on the US market.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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