• Poll shows rising support for EU membership
    05/09/2003

    A poll showing rising support for European Union membership was released on Friday along with a government report promising EU entry would net the country more than 24 billion crowns in the first three years. The polling agency CVVM said its latest survey found 58 per cent of Czech voters would support and 24 per cent oppose next month's binding referendum on EU enlargement. Among voters who said they would definitely cast ballots, the poll found 70 per cent backed enlargement. The Czech government is pushing for a "yes" vote in the mid-June referendum, which is scheduled to follow similar referenda in three other candidate states - Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech soldiers injured in road accident in Iraq
    05/09/2003

    Three Czech soldiers were injured in a road accident on Friday some 150 kilometres south of Baghdad. According to the Defence Ministry one of the three injured soldiers is in a critical state. Exhaustion of the driver is thought to have been the cause of the crash.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Long queues at Czech field hospital in Iraq
    05/09/2003

    Doctors at the Czech military field hospital in Basra, southern Iraq, are working around the clock in an effort to keep up with long queues of sick and injured Iraqi civilians. The World Health Organization has warned about the threat of cholera in southern Iraq linked to poor sanitation and war but so far, cholera has not been detected by Czech doctors deployed in Basra. About 400 people regularly queue outside the hospital tents, but on their best day the doctors and nurses have treated only 77 patients. Most civilians suffer from infections, skin disease, diarrhoea and chronic ailments.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Coalition parties to discuss public finance reform
    05/09/2003

    Representatives of the three Czech ruling coalition parties are to meet again on Sunday to try and agree on concrete steps to cut the country's large budget deficit. Leaders agreed last week to slash spending and raise taxes to turn around the deterioration of Czech public finances, which is hampering its aim to join the euro zone several years after EU entry in May 2004. A strong consensus on the reform is key for the survival of the weak coalition, whose 101 seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament have proven an unreliable majority.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Klaus to visit USA
    05/09/2003

    President Vaclav Klaus is planning a visit to the United States in mid June, the president's spokesman Tomas Klvana said after Mr Klaus's meeting with US Ambassador Craig Stapleton on Friday. According to Tomas Klvana, President Klaus has received invitations to several conferences in the United States but he is also to meet top-level officials. The presidential office did not confirm whether Vaclav Klaus was to meet President George W. Bush.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czechs mark 58th anniversary of liberation from Nazis
    05/08/2003

    People in the Czech Republic have been marking the 58th anniversary of liberation from the Nazis. Ceremonies were held across the country. In the town of Plzen in West Bohemia a procession of army vehicles drove through the city centre, to mark the arrival in May 1945 of U.S. troops led by General Patton. Meanwhile in the capital Prague, politicians and ordinary people remembered the 3,000 soldiers and civilians who died in the popular uprising, one of the last battles of the Second World War. A special ceremony was held outside the Czech Radio building, which played a crucial role in the uprising.
    Author: Rob Cameron

  • New poll shows rising support for EU membership ahead of poll
    05/08/2003

    A new opinion poll has shown that Czechs are likely to approve membership of the European Union by a strong margin in next month's referendum. The weekly survey, conducted by the TNS Factum agency, forecast that 83 percent of those who intended to participate in the referendum would vote in favour, up from 76 percent a week ago and the highest figure since the polls started in February. The Czech Republic hopes to become a member of the EU in May of next year.
    Author: Rob Cameron

  • Spidla: low turn out will play into hands of Communists
    05/08/2003

    The Prime Minister, Vladimir Spidla, has warned that low turnout in June's referendum would play into the hands of the Communist Party, who are campaigning for a "No" vote. Mr Spidla called on people to take part in the poll, which is being held on June 13th and 14th.
    Author: Rob Cameron

  • Czechs face Canada in semis of world ice-hockey championships
    05/08/2003

    The Czech ice-hockey squad face Canada on Friday evening in the semi-final of the world championships in Finland. The Czechs went through to the semis after defeating traditional rivals Russia 3-0 on Wednesday evening in their quarter final match. NHL goal scoring champion Milan Hejduk led the scoring for the Czechs, world champions in three of the last four years.
    Author: Rob Cameron

  • Second test at a Brno hospital fails to find any evidence of SARS link to patient's death
    05/07/2003

    A second test by Brno hospital officials to determine whether a man who died of pneumonia over the weekend may have been infected with SARS - has failed to uncover any evidence of the deadly virus. The victim had been suspected of having the disease, after having recently travelled to the Czech Republic from Southeast Asia; he died in hospital on Saturday. An autopsy was first conducted to determine whether the man suffered from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which has swept Asia and Canada, but so far has not been detected in the Czech Republic. In recent weeks Czech hospitals in the country's main cities have quarantined and examined some 26 people for the disease. None have tested positive so far.
    Author: Jan Velinger

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