• Czech police face cash shortage for operations
    07/28/2009

    Czech police are also facing budget problems. In this case, money for covering operational expenses is short to the tune of around 900 million crowns. This threatens the force with being unable to fuel patrol cars, pay energy bills or buy paper. On the other hand, a shortage of around 3,500 staff nationwide means that the force is saving even more on the wages bill. Minister of Interior Martin Pecina said on Tuesday that the government should rush through changes that will allow unspent cash from one section of the budget to be used in another. The entire system should be overhauled next year so that budgets corresponded with costs, he said.
    Author: Chris Johnstone

  • Christian Democrats oppose planned pre-election TV debate
    07/28/2009

    The Christian Democrats have objected to plans for a two-way debate between leaders of the two main parties ahead of October’s elections. The party has protested Czech Television’s plans for a debate between leaders of the Civic Democrats and Social Democrats on the last Sunday ahead of the vote. They say such a format risks distorting the vote. They want the two-way debate widened to include more parties. Christian Democrat leader Cyril Svoboda said that the recently re-elected head of the public broadcaster had a chance to show his mettle against pressure from the two main parties.
    Author: Chris Johnstone

  • Return of the last Tomi Tour tourists
    07/28/2009

    The last Czech tourists with crashed tour operator Tomi Tour have returned home. A Czech airlines plane brought the last 115 tourists back from Egypt on Tuesday morning. Around 3,200 Czechs who had booked with the tour operator were abroad when its collapse was announced on July 17. Most of the tourists were stranded in Turkey, Egypt and Spain. Holiday bookings were being taken minutes before the collapse was announced.
    Author: Chris Johnstone

  • Sparta Prague offered chance of revenge in Panathinaikos tie
    07/28/2009

    Sparta Prague take the field against Greek team Panathinaikos on Tuesday night for a chance of playing in the European Champions League. The first leg of the third pre-qualifying round offers the Czech side a chance of revenge. The Athenian team blocked Sparta’s chances of a place in the top European competition last year with wins at home and away. Sparta Prague has not featured in the Champions League for the last three seasons.
    Author: Chris Johnstone

  • Kohout: EU not to decide upon retaliatory visas for Canadians until autumn
    07/27/2009

    The European Union will not make a decision on whether to re-impose visas for Canadians until the autumn, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said in Brussels on Monday. The Czech Republic has asked the EU to consider introducing visas for Canadians in retaliation to Ottawa’s decision to re-introduce visas for Czechs. According to Mr Kohout on Monday, however, the EU’s response first has to be considered by the European Commission and nothing will be decided upon before September. Following two years of visa-free travel, Canada reintroduced visas for Czechs on July 14 after thousands of Czech Roma applied for asylum.
    Author: Rosie Johnston

  • Twenty new cases of swine flu registered in Czech Republic over weekend
    07/27/2009

    A further 20 cases of swine flu were registered in the Czech Republic over the weekend, the Health Ministry said on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in this country to 63. According to the ministry, the majority of those infected did not need hospital treatment and were recovering in isolation at home, without needing to use antivirals. A spokesperson for the ministry added that none of those infected displayed any signs of further health complications, and that all of the patients were on course to make a full recovery. The new cases were mostly registered in people who had returned to the Czech Republic from abroad, notably Great Britain, the United States and Spain, though several of the patients had not recently left the country, and had contracted the virus from those they had been in contact with here.
    Author: Rosie Johnston

  • Government pledges billions to help towns battle financial downturn
    07/27/2009

    The government agreed on a plan to combat the effects of the financial crisis with the Czech Union of Towns and Municipalities on Monday. At a news conference after the meeting, Prime Minister Jan Fischer said the government would give Czech towns some 2 billion crowns (112 million USD) to help fight the economic downturn, and would set aside another 2 billion crowns in reserve. Head of the Union of Towns and Municipalities Oldřich Vlasák said that the lion’s share of the money would be spent on services conducted at a regional level on behalf of the state. Mr Vlasák added that, at the moment, municipalities are covering up to 70 percent of the cost of such services.
    Author: Rosie Johnston

  • Communist Party ready to apologise for past wrongs if this leads to closer cooperation with Social Democrats
    07/27/2009

    The Czech Communist Party has said that it is ready to apologise for wrongs committed under communism in the former Czechoslovakia if that leads to closer cooperation with the centre-left Social Democrat Party after October’s elections. On Monday, Communist leader Vojtěch Filip told Hospodářské noviny that ‘the left’s cooperation’ was ‘in everyone’s best interest’ and that his party was ready to say sorry, if that would lead to closer ties between the two parties. According to Hospodářské noviny, however, the Social Democrats have no interest in such a deal. Deputy Chairman of the Social Democrats Zdeněk Škromach told the paper that the Communists could well apologise, but that this would not change anything. The Communist Party already apologised for past wrongs after the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
    Author: Rosie Johnston

  • Police say they may have found flash floods’ 15th victim
    07/27/2009

    Police have found the body of a 40-year-old woman in Benešov nad Ploučnicí who, they say, may be the 15th victim of the flash floods which struck the country in early July. A spokesperson for the police in Děčín said forensics specialists were now trying to identify the woman who was found in a river on Monday morning. The results of DNA tests should be known in a month, spokesman Ladislav Cvik added. The body is thought to be that of a woman who disappeared on July 4 when helping others escape flash floods in north Bohemia. The floods claimed at least 14 lives around the Czech Republic and caused billions of crowns worth of damage.
    Author: Rosie Johnston

  • ČEZ still trying to reconnect 600 people left without power by Thursday’s storms
    07/27/2009

    Czech energy giant ČEZ said on Monday that it was still trying to reconnect some 600 customers left without electricity after storms last Thursday. Extreme weather felled trees and cut power cables around the Czech Republic, initially leaving around 150,000 people without power. Electricity supplier ČEZ said that it would have to spend in the region of 30-40 million crowns (1.7-2.2 million USD) to repair damage caused by the storms. Two people were killed in last Thursday’s storms.
    Author: Rosie Johnston

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