News

Czech veterinarians say they may have uncovered the 10th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease, in the Czech Republic. A six and a half-year-old specimen in East Bohemia may have the disease; according to State Veterinary Administration head Josef Holejsovsky the results of control tests could be made public next Tuesday. On Fridayspokesman Josef Duben said vets had banned the movement of any animals from the farm under suspicion, a number of animals are now to be slaughtered as a preventive step. Altogether, some 1,600 cows have been slaughtered in relation to the nine BSE cases detected to date. The first Czech BSE case was detected in June 2001.

President Vaclav Klaus has begun an eleven-day state visit to China. This is the first ever visit by a Czech head of state to Beijing since the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989. Mr Klaus is accompanied by a large delegation of Czech businessmen. The trip is expected to consolidate trade between the two countries, which has been booming in recent years. A number of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and People in Need, have called on President Klaus to bring up the issue of China's poor human-rights record during his visit.

There has been no news in the search for the three Czech journalists who were kidnapped in Iraq on Sunday morning. According to the Czech Foreign Ministry the kidnappers have not contacted the Czech side yet, and Czech diplomacy has not succeeded in establishing any direct contact with them either. The purpose of the kidnap is not yet known and there is no direct evidence that the three Czechs are still alive. Deputy Foreign Minister Petr Kolar said that the ministry believed the Czechs had not been abducted by the same group which on Wednesday murdered an Italian national. Czech Television reporter Michal Kubal, his cameraman Petr Klima and Czech Radio reporter Vit Pohanka were abducted by as yet unidentified armed men when travelling from Baghdad to Jordan's Amman on Sunday morning.

Prague police have said that the crime rate in Prague has fallen in the first three months of this year by almost four percent compared to the same period last year but no improvement has been achieved in the clearance of crimes. While twenty-five percent of crimes were solved in the first quarter of last year, it was almost eight percent fewer this year. About 24,000 crimes were committed in Prague in the first quarter of this year, about 4,000 of which have been solved. Compared to 2003, the number of violent crimes has increased. The number of robberies has also grown and two more murders were committed compared to the same period last year. The number of robberies of banks and post offices has grown seven times, while the number of thefts has fallen.