• Swimmer Kovar wins third gold medal at Paralympic Games
    09/26/2004

    The Czech swimmer Martin Kovar has won his third gold medal at the Paralympic Games now underway in Athens, after winning the 50-metre event. The Czech Prime Minister, Stanislav Gross, was in Athens for part of the games and presented Mr Kovar with the medal. Czech athletes have so far won 25 medals at the games.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Health Ministry to investigate allegations that Romani women were sterilised without their consent
    09/25/2004

    After talks with state ombudsman Otakar Motejl, Health Minister Milada Emmerova has agreed to establish a special commission to investigate fresh allegations that Romani women were sterilised without their consent in the past decade. The birth rate among the Roma is significantly higher than the general population and documented evidence shows that from 1959 to 1990 the former Czechoslovakia encouraged Romani women to undergo sterilisation by giving them cash payments, and in some cases doctors performed the operation without the women's consent. The practice was condemned by international human rights groups as racist and halted as official policy. Charges that sterilizations continued in recent years have been brought forth by the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre, along with two Czech civil society groups which are representing the legal interests of about 10 Romani women.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Doctor's Association board against 'general' privatisation of hospitals
    09/25/2004

    The board of the Czech Doctors' Association, meeting on Saturday, has backed calls to prevent the privatisation of regional hospitals until a law on non-profit hospitals is passed. Association president David Rath said the board has no objections to private hospitals supplementing health care, but was against the "general" privatisation of existing state-run hospitals. In related news, representatives of a patients' rights association said over 77,000 people in Central Bohemia have signed on to a petition against privatising Czech hospitals.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Czech pilots begin testing Gripen fighters
    09/25/2004

    Two Czech test pilots have begun training on JAS-39 Gripen fighters in Sweden. The men will return home as pilot-instructors themselves in a few months time to begin training their Czech colleagues. The Czech government agreed to lease the Swedish jets for the next ten years. As of May 2005, the Czech air force will decommission the fleets Russian-made MIG-21s.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Otto von Hapsburg becomes honorary citizen of Franstiske Lazne
    09/25/2004

    Otto von Hapsburg, the son of Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles I, was granted honorary citizen of the spa town of Frantiske Lazne on Saturday in recognition of his efforts to promote the peaceful unification of Europe. He was also on hand to unveil a statue of his ancestor, Emperor Franz Joseph I, who founded the spa town in 1793. Von Hapsburg, a former Member of the European Parliament from Bavaria, had gone against many in his party by objecting to preconditioning Czech membership in the European Union to the abolishment of the so-called Benes Decrees, which led to the post-WWII expulsion of millions of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Chamber overturns Klaus veto on European arrest warrant
    09/24/2004

    The Chamber of Deputies has approved the adoption of the European arrest warrant, overturning a veto by President Vaclav Klaus. Meanwhile, the opposition Civic Democrats said Friday they were planning to take the matter to the Constitutional Court; they say the European arrest warrant contravenes the Czech Republic's bill of basic rights and freedoms.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Bill brings end to nearly 140 years of compulsory military service
    09/24/2004

    The lower house also approved a law on Friday doing away with military conscription from 2005, bringing to an end almost 140 years of forced military service. The last conscripts are due to leave the Czech Army just before Christmas.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Chamber votes to make maths optional in school-leaving exams
    09/24/2004

    The Chamber also passed an education bill under which mathematics would not be a compulsory subject in the maturita school-leaving exams. The bill now has to be reviewed by the president. There has been some debate in recent months about whether maths should be a compulsory subject at Czech gymnaziums ('grammar schools').
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • MP who says Civic Democrats offered him large bribe passes lie detector test
    09/24/2004

    An MP who says the Civic Democrats tried to bribe him to bring down the government in a confidence vote passed a lie detector test during questioning by police on Thursday. Zdenek Koristka of the Freedom Union said last month he had been offered a bribe of 10 million crowns (around 300,000 euros), an allegation strenuously denied by the Civic Democrats. The two men Mr Koristka says approached him have declined to undergo a lie detector test, arguing that the results cannot be used as evidence in Czech courts.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Memorial to Ostrava Jews vandalized by neo-Nazis
    09/24/2004

    A memorial in Ostrava which commemorates the deportation of thousands of Jews from the city during the Holocaust has been vandalised with Nazi inscriptions. The memorial was erected ten years ago to mark the 55th anniversary of the first transport of local Jews to the concentration camp of Nisk in Poland. It was also targeted by vandals last year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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