News

Police are investigating the deaths of two sons of a woman charged with the killing of another of her boys. Antonie Stašková and her boyfriend Pavel Grepl are being held in custody in Ústí nad Labem after the discovery of the body of the former’s five-year-old son Jan, who had been missing since August. Now an investigation has begun into the deaths of the woman’s other two sons Radek and David, who both died (in 1989 and 1992, respectively) by choking before their first birthdays. Ms Stašková’s mother told Wednesday’s Mladá fronta Dnes she believed her daughter had murdered at least one of the boys.

The Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint made by a group of senators against measures to reform the public finances which came into effect on January 1. The senators, including members of the opposition Social Democrats, said there were problems with the way in which the government-sponsored reform had been discussed. However, the court said it would not hear the complaint because it was already dealing with a proposal to overturn the reform submitted by Social Democrat MPs. Opponents of the government reform bill are strongly opposed to new medical charges, which they say are unconstitutional.

Around a quarter of a million Czechs were on holiday over the Christmas and New Year period, according to figures released by the Association of Czech Travel Agents. The association’s spokesman Tomio Okamura told the newspaper Právo that around 170,000 Czechs had spent the festive season at mountain resorts in the Czech Republic, while around 85,000 holidayed outside the country. Mr Okamura also said holiday vouchers had sold well, with up to 200,000 Czechs receiving them as gifts at Christmas.

Attendance at Czech cinemas was evidently at its highest in 13 years in 2007, the Union of Czech Film Distributors said. Between the start of January and the end of November last year, just over 11.75 million viewers had watched movies in Czech cinemas, a rise of around a quarter of a million on the same period in 2006. Industry figures say the number for the whole of 2007 should reach 12.5 million. Receipts were also up, with the popularity of Czech-made films given as the reason for both increases.