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07/03/2008
The Czech crown hit a new record against the U.S. dollar on Thursday when it sold below 15 crowns per dollar for the fist time in history. On Thursday afternoon, the Czech currency was trading at 14.95 crowns for the dollar and at 23.76 crowns per euro. Analysts say the record high was caused by a combination of weakening stock markets, soaring oil prices and the weak U.S. dollar; experts also say Thursday’s increase of interest rates by the European Central Bank did not have any effect on the ever-more strengthening Czech crown.
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07/03/2008
The head of the Czech Republic’s Prison Service Luděk Kula is facing eight years in jail for a failed tender for mobile phone jammers, the news website Novinky.cz reported on Thursday. The police have accused Mr Kula of breach of trust. In 2005 and 2006, the Prison Office spent almost 20 million crowns, or more than 1.3 million U.S. dollars, on mobile phone jammers for Czech penitentiaries. Some of the equipment was purchased without any public tenders and was later discovered to be faulty. Mr Kula said he would file a complaint against the accusation.
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07/03/2008
A court in Prague rejected on Wednesday a petition by Qatari prince Hamid Bin Abdul Sani al-Thani to intervene in a high-profile “judical mafia” libel case. The prince wanted to become an enjoined party in a legal dispute between Supreme State Attorney Renáta Vesecká and her predecessor Marie Benešová. Ms Benšová said the supreme state attorney, along with a group of prosecutors and judges, were a “judicial mafia” because they intervened in the protracted alleged bribery case involving deputy Prime Minister Jiří Čunek. Last month, a court in Prague upheld her claims and ruled Ms Benešová did not have to apologize, pointing out that the “judicial mafia” also intervened in the case of the Qatari prince. In 2005, Mr Sani was accused in the Czech Republic of sexual abuse of minors but was later released and left the country for his homeland.
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07/03/2008
Reflecting on the possibility of new direct presidential elections, Prime Minister Topolánek rejected on Thursday the possibility of incumbent president Václav Klaus being re-elected for a third term. Mr Topolánek said the Czech constitution did not allow anybody to run for a third term, whatever the mode of the election.
Czech politicians have begun debating whether the next Czech president should be elected directly, instead of the current vote by both chambers of parliament. Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil has been asked to draft a proposal to that effect.
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07/03/2008
The Czech beer producer Budvar succeeded on Wednesday in registering its Budweiser Budvar trademark in Hong Kong, following an 11-year-long dispute with its American competitor Anheuser-Busch. The České Budějovice-based brewing company has also started exporting its lager to mainland China. Budvar is currently involved in trademark disputes with its U.S. rival in more than 40 countries around the world.
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07/03/2008
A comprehensive anthology on the Prague Spring of 1968 was presented at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna in Thursday. The two-volume anthology, with 2900 pages, was edited by Stefan Karner of the Boltzmann Institute in Graz, Austria. It contains articles, studies and documents on the 1968 reform movement in Czechoslovakia. The international team of authors was the first to be granted access to the Soviet-era archives in Moscow.
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07/03/2008
A 16-year-old Czech girl, who is wanted in Austria for attempted murder, was arrested in the Czech Republic on Wednesday. The girl is suspected of stabbing a 50-year-old Austrian man in the head, neck and chest. The man, allegedly a friend of the girl’s father, received hospital treatment and his life is apparently not in danger.
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07/03/2008
Czech defensive midfielder Radek Bejbl, who is 36, ended his career on Thursday. Mr Bejbl was a member of the Czech national team that won silver medals at the 1996 European championship in England. He also played in Slavia Prague before transferring to Spain’s Atlético Madrid, and later moved to Racing Lens and Rapid Wien. He played 58 matches for the Czech national team in which he scored 3 goals.
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07/02/2008
The government is debating a possible change of legislation which would allow for direct presidential elections. The three parties of the governing coalition are not yet in complete agreement on what such a change of legislation should entail and whether a president elected in a direct ballot should have more powers. The Christian Democrats are against changing the powers of the president, while the Civic Democrats would like to see them broadened. The Justice Ministry has been asked to draft a proposal. Opinion surveys suggest that 90 percent of Czechs would like to elect their head of state in a direct vote.
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07/02/2008
Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has rejected accusations that he was abusing his position by ordering government planes for his private trips. The last in a series of such accusations concerned the fact that the prime minister used a government plane to fly to Vienna for the final match of the Euro 2008 championship. Mr. Topolánek said that as prime minister he was entitled to use government planes at any time and accused the media of harassment. He said the visit to Vienna was approved by the Cabinet, otherwise he would have flown charter and paid for the trip out of his own wallet. Mr. Topolánek said he used barely a third of the perks to which he was entitled as prime minister.
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