News

Czech international footballer Milan Baros, who plays in France's Ligue 1, will face a court date and the possibility of a high fine, after he was caught speeding in France on Thursday. According to reports, Baros exceeded the speed limit on a highway between Lyon and Geneva by 141 kilometres per hour. The footballer was at the wheel of his Ferrari sports car when he was stopped. French police confiscated both Mr Baros' licence as well as his vehicle. In addition to a hefty fine, the 26-year-old striker will face the possibility of a driving ban of three years.

In NHL ice hockey action on Thursday defenseman Michal Rozsival helped his team the New York Rangers by scoring the second goal in the Rangers' 2:0 win over Washington.

In other games: seasoned forward Martin Rucinsky notched up his first goal of the season for St Louis over Minnesota, as did Martin Erat for Nashville. Nashville won 3:0 over Vancouver.

The last living prosecutor at the trial of Milada Horakova has received an eight-year prison sentence for judicial murder. Ludmila Brozova Polednova sat on the panel that condemned the democratic politician Milada Horakova to death in 1950, under the Czechoslovak Communist regime. On Thursday, a Prague court sentenced Mrs Polednova to eight years in a high security jail. Many had thought that Mrs Polednova, who is now 86, would not receive a jail sentence on grounds of her age, but the judge presiding over the case said that she had acted in contempt of the law, and should therefore go to jail. Acting as an accomplice to murder normally carries a fifteen-year jail sentence, but Mrs Polednova received a lesser sentence because of her age and, according to the judge, because of the time that had lapsed since the event. Milada Horakova was the only women ever to be executed in communist Czechoslovakia for political reasons, and was condemned following a trail that many thought was staged.

The parents of two newborn baby girls who were accidentally swapped at birth have received 100,000 CZK (5,000 USD) each from Vysocina Regional Council. District Officer Milos Vystrcil, who handed over the amount, said the sum was purely to cover expenses caused by the baby mix-up. He added that the parents and the hospital at fault would have to negotiate a figure for emotional damages at a later date. One of the parents, Libor Broza, responded to the donation by saying that it was hard to tell if it did in fact cover all the costs incurred, but at least it was something. The two families affected by the baby-swap are thought to want 1 million CZK from the Trebic hospital involved for each month that they have lived with their non-biological offspring.

In related news, Trebic police have suspended their investigations into hospital personnel implicated in the baby-swap. According to a spokesperson, there is little evidence that the mix-up was deliberate and thus a criminal offence. On Wednesday, two of the hospital employees who were sacked following the incident were reinstated in their positions.