News

Police said Thursday that they had charged a Prostějov-based organ maker with fraud. The man was commissioned by Hradec Králové city council to build a new organ for its philharmonic orchestra and advanced 6.0 million crowns as a down payment. When the project appeared to be running into problems, the council asked for the money back but the man had already spent 5.4 million on himself. He faces up to 12 years in prison if found guilty. The organ was supposed to have been completed in 2007. Last year the contract was awarded to another manufacturer.

Prime Minister Jan Fischer has said the Czech Republic will likely be investigated in the coming year by the European Commission on account of its high budget deficit. Speaking at an economic forum in Prague on Wednesday, Mr Fischer stated that while the investigation is a standard procedure, any further deepening of the deficit could jeopardise the transfer of money from EU funds, and the recommendations arising from such investigations can bring what he called “painful” measures. EU finance ministers agreed at the beginning of December that the Czech Republic would have to decrease its budget deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2013 if it is to adopt the Euro in the foreseeable future. Alterations made by left-wing parties to the recently-passed 2010 budget have pushed the deficit for that year past what the current finance ministry considers acceptable.

Police have apprehended an armed robber who held two people hostage during a bank robbery in a residential district of Prague. The crisis began Wednesday morning when it was reported that a man had taken the bank manager hostage in her office at a branch of Komerční banka in Prague’s Novodvorská suburb and demanded three million crowns, or roughly 160,000 dollars. The manager was later released by the robber, without any further demands and apparently unharmed. Roughly two hours later, police gained control of the situation and freed the remaining hostage, reportedly after causing a diversionary explosion inside the bank. According to Czech Television, the perpetrator visited the branch office on Tuesday to apply for a business loan, but lacked the proper documentation, and returned on Wednesday on the pretext of signing a contract with the bank manager. No one was injured in the course of the ordeal.

Specialists at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine are preparing the first transplantation of a small intestine in a former Eastern Bloc state. The operation is considered one of the most complicated in terms of both technique and handling the subsequent reaction of the immune system. A successful result will bring the number of organs that can be transplanted at the institute to six. Transplants of the kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas and lungs have already been successfully conducted. The intestinal transplant study has been nominated for a certificate of merit from the Ministry of Health.