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02/21/2008
Telefónica O2, the largest domestic telecommunications company, announced on Thursday that its consolidated net profit for 2007 reached 10.4 billion crowns, or more than 613 million US dollars. This represents almost a 30 percent year-on-year increase. The company’s sales rose to 63 billion crowns last year, or more than 3.7 billion US dollars. Despite a steady drain of landline customers, the company was able to stop decrease in revenues last year due to the rising number of high-speed internet connections.
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02/21/2008
A group of opposition Social Democrat MPs submitted a draft bill to the Czech Parliament on Thursday which should improve the policies adopted by large chain stores towards their suppliers. If passed, the bill will introduce a duty for large chain stores with annual turnovers over five billion crowns, or almost 300 million US dollars, to introduce codes of ethics to follow when negotiating with their suppliers. The suppliers have complained that large supermarket chains push the prices down too much and they require additional fees for placing particular products at the best parts of shelves. While chain stores have rejected the proposal, the sales of ten largest supermarket chains in the Czech Republic rose by 31.3 billion crowns, or more than 1.8 billion US dollars in 2007.
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02/21/2008
French authorities returned 15 paintings to the Czech Republic on Thursday which had been confiscated last year from two Czech smugglers at the French-German border. The contraband included works by Czech modernists František Kupka, Toyen and Jindřich Štýrský. The smugglers, who are now held in custody in Prague, have not been able to explain the origin of the works of art.
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02/20/2008
MEPs from the biggest party in the Czech coalition government the Civic Democrats abstained in a vote on the Treaty of Lisbon at the European Parliament on Wednesday. A report on the document being debated by MEPs expressed regret that some elements of an earlier failed EU constitution were not preserved in the Lisbon Treaty, which has replaced it. Czech MEP Jan Zahradil, a senior Civic Democrat, said that expression of regret meant the report ran counter to the Czech government’s position. However, Czech Social Democrat MEP Libor Rouček described the Civic Democrats’ position as embarrassing, given that the party leads the Czech government, which has signed the treaty.
The Czech Republic will hold the rotating presidency of the EU in the first half of 2009, when the Treaty of Lisbon may come into effect, if it has been ratified by all member states by the end of this year.
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02/20/2008
Prague is set to see its first large military parade since the fall of communism on October 28, the 90th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia, Mladá fronta Dnes reported. The minister of defence, Vlasta Parkanová, said she herself had been cool on the idea initially, as it brought to mind communist-era shows of strength. Minister Parkanová said, however, that a parade of elite soldiers, rescue units, police and fire fighters would remind the public of their aim, the security of the citizen.
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02/20/2008
The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, will make a two-day visit to Canada at the end of next week, the official website of his Canadian counterpart, Stephen Harper, announced. Both leaders are due to discuss their countries’ joint operations in Afghanistan and participation in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Mr Harper’s website said. Mr Topolánek will travel to Ottawa and Toronto after visiting Washington, where next Wednesday he will hold talks with US President George Bush.
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02/20/2008
The Christian Democrats are to raise the question of direct presidential elections with the other parties in the governing coalition, the Civic Democrats and the Greens. The party say they would like moves towards changing the constitution to allow a public vote to be made as quickly as possible. The Christian Democrats’ call comes after a recent bitterly fought parliamentary vote in which Václav Klaus was re-elected Czech president. The biggest party in the coalition the Civic Democrats are in favour of maintaining the current system. By contrast, the Greens and the Social Democrats are in favour of a direct vote, while the Communists say they could also back the change, if there were a cap on campaign spending.
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02/20/2008
Evžen Snítilý, who went against the Social Democrats’ party line and voted for Václav Klaus in last Friday’s presidential election, says he has no plans to give up his seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Mr Snítilý was immediately expelled from the party’s deputies group after signalling his intention to vote for Mr Klaus, with senior Social Democrats accusing him of corruption. He has rejected party calls for him to step down as a deputy, saying he had no reason to do so. Mr Snítilý says he remains a Social Democrat at heart; however, party leaders are reportedly worried he may join two other rebels who crossed the floor to support the governing coalition after the last elections.
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02/20/2008
A Czech Roman Catholic priest has received a suspended sentence for child sexual abuse. Zbyněk Schneider, who is 39, was also found guilty of spreading child pornography on the internet. The priest, who worked at a Catholic youth centre in Plzeň, admitted to downloading child pornography but denied disseminating it, abusing young girls and taking photographs of them.
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02/20/2008
Zdeněk Miler, the creator of the world famous cartoon character Mole (Krtek), is celebrating his 87th birthday on Wednesday. He worked as a cartoonist at the Baťa film studio in Zlín during the war, before launching his most famous creation in 1957 in a film entitled How the Mole Got His Trousers. Mr Miler made around 70 films before retiring in 2002.
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