-
09/09/2008
The share of Czech students graduating from university has grown slightly according to a report by the OECD. However, the country still falls far beneath the OECD average. According to the organisation’s figures, the OECD average for higher education within the population is 27% - the Czech figure is 14%. The Czech figures have been rising slowly for the past number of years, but analysts argue that much more needs to be done. OECD figures also suggest that the Czech Republic lags in the amount of spending per pupil – the average is 6.4% of GDP spent on education, while in the Czech Republic, the figure is 4.6%. University spending per student is also below the average of 16000 USD per student, with the Czech Republic only spending 6000 USD per student.
-
09/09/2008
Fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejčíř has been handed a seven year jail term for the abduction of fellow businessman Jakub Konečný in 2002. He is alleged to have hired a Kosovar Albanian to abduct the businessman during a financial dispute. The prison term was handed out by a Prague court, with Mr Krejčíř in absentia. The businessman is currently in South Africa, having succeeded in thwarting Czech attempts to have him extradited back to the Czech Republic to face numerous charges of property fraud and several other alleged crimes. Mr Krejčíř escaped from police custody in the Czech Republic in 2005 in shady circumstances during a police search of his home. The current verdict can be appealed if Mr Krejčíř chooses to do so.
-
09/09/2008
The Christian Democrats have distanced themselves from an official government promotion campaign designed to raise awareness about its impending presidency of the EU. The comments came following a meeting of the party faithful on the subject held on Tuesday. They have now asked their coalition partners to come up with a better idea than the current “We will sweeten Europe” campaign, which features a sugar cube falling into a cup of coffee. The Christian Democrats have also stated that they were not consulted about the campaign. The campaign caused controversy after it was realised that it also had an anti-European connotation because the Czech president Václav Klaus, a prominent Euro-skeptic, had once stated that the country will dissolve like a sugar cube within the EU. The Czech Republic is set to assume the EU presidency in January 2009.
-
09/09/2008
The former Czech president Václav Havel has labeled Russia and Belarus as newer and more sophisticated authoritarian regimes. The comments came during a security conference the former president was attending, which was held in Prague. In references to the current conflict in Georgia, he also added that the West should not hold back in letting such regimes know what they think of such perceived wrongdoings, while also cautioning that oil should not be allowed to trump human rights.
-
09/09/2008
A coach believed to be from Denmark caught fire and eventually burned up on a stretch of the D1 motorway between Prague and Brno. Police say that all the passengers managed to escape before the blaze engulfed the vehicle. The incident occurred shortly before 2pm Tuesday, and led to the motorway being sealed off for a number of hours causing major tailbacks. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
-
09/09/2008
The Czech national football team is preparing for its opening World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland, which will take place on Wednesday in Belfast. The match will be the first competitive game under the team’s new manager Petr Rada, who succeeded Karel Brückner after the Euro 2008 tournament concluded this summer. Mr Brückner, meanwhile has taken over as manager of the Austrian team, winning accolades for a surprise 3:1 victory over France in qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa.
-
09/08/2008
The Civic Democrat MP at the centre of a murky blackmail affair has resigned. Jan Morava, who is 29, announced his resignation on Monday, a day after a report on TV Nova showed that he had been collecting compromising material on fellow MPs in order to blackmail them. His meetings with Nova journalists, who were disguised as private detectives, were recorded by hidden camera. The report also confirmed that Vlastimil Tlustý, a Civic Democrat MP at odds with the party leadership, co-operated with reporters in their investigation. Mr Tlustý posed in compromising photos with a young woman as a trap to see which fellow party members would buy the photos.
-
09/08/2008
The Social Democrats want to call a vote of no-confidence following Senate and regional elections in mid-October in reaction to the blackmail scandal in the Civic Democrats, the biggest party in the governing coalition. Speaking at a news conference on Monday, the head of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, also said the upcoming elections should be regarded as a referendum on the government.
-
09/08/2008
Two Czech scientists have been found guilty of illegally collecting insects in India. The court in Darjeeling has sentenced the Czech entomologists to three years in prison and a fine of about 10,000 rupees. The men’s lawyer can appeal against the verdict on Wednesday. Emil Kučera and Petr Švácha were arrested near the Singalila National Park on June 23 for collecting rare insects without a permit. The two men denied all the charges against them.
-
09/08/2008
The head of the Green Party, Martin Bursík, has dismissed one-third of the party’s national council, which consisted mainly of his opponents. Twenty members of the national council were dismissed during the last day of the party’s national congress on Sunday, including Mr Bursík’s main critics Dana Kuchtová and Matěj Stropnický. Mr Bursík originally wanted to change the party rules, which would make the national council subordinate to the party leadership, but his proposal was not debated at all, as the meeting was running behind the schedule.
Mr Bursík, who is environment minister and deputy prime minister, was re-elected the party’s leader on Saturday, defeating the former education minister Dana Kuchtová. Education Minister Ondřej Liška and MP Kateřina Jacques became the first and the second deputies.
Pages
- « první
- ‹ předchozí
- …
- 5321
- 5322
- 5323
- 5324
- 5325
- 5326
- 5327
- 5328
- 5329
- …
- následující ›
- poslední »