• 01/28/2007

    The Czech authorities have decided to end the controversial practice of North Koreans working in factories across the country as breadwinners for their authoritarian regime. Tomas Haisman, an interior ministry official responsible for Czech asylum and migration policy, told the AFP news agency that the ministry would not be offering new work permits to North Korean citizens and did not intend to prolong existing ones. Around 400 North Koreans are currently working in the country, mostly as seamstresses. They are kept on a tight leash by government agents and allowed to keep only part of their wages.

  • 01/28/2007

    Regional Development Minister Jiri Cunek says he can explain the origin of the suspect half a million crowns which he placed in his account in 2002. In a televised debate on Sunday, Mr. Cunek said he had documents to prove that the money was family savings retrieved from Universal Bank following its bankruptcy. The minister said it was money earned before he entered politics and that he had managed to retrieve it thanks to the fact that the savings account was ensured against bankruptcy.

    The police suspect Mr. Cunek of having taken a bribe when he was in regional politics and the police have asked for him to be stripped of his immunity. His former secretary is their chief witness, having told the police that her former boss not only accepted the bribe but openly boasted about it. Jiri Cunek, who is also a senator and head of the Christian Democratic Party, has dismissed the accusations saying he would clear his name in court.

  • 01/28/2007

    The Czech public is divided over whether Jiri Cunek should remain in politics. According to a poll conducted by the Mlada Fronta Dnes daily 52 percent of respondents think that Mr. Cunek should resign from all his posts and leave politics. Forty-eight percent of respondents said he should be treated as innocent until proven otherwise.

  • 01/28/2007

    A protest demonstration against the possible deployment of a US radar base in the Czech Republic will take place in Prague on Monday despite the fact that it has been banned by the Prague city hall. Opponents of the base will meet on Prague's Wenceslas Square before marching to the US Embassy and the Office of Government. Representatives of several dozen civic groups and associations as well as individuals are expected to take part. The city hall banned the protest saying that a march though the city-centre would disrupt traffic.

  • 01/28/2007

    Former culture minister Viteslav Jandak has suggested merging the country's public radio and public television networks. Mr. Jandak, who is now an opposition deputy for the Social Democratic Party, said a merger of Czech Radio and Czech Television would enable significant cost cutting measures without reducing quality. The newly appointed culture minister Vaclav Jehlicka said he was not against the idea in principle, but noted that both Czech Radio and Czech Television were known to oppose it.

  • 01/28/2007

    Three people have frozen to death since the sudden onset of cold weather in the Czech Republic last week. The first was a fifty year old homeless man who died several hours after seeking help in a hospital and being evicted because doctors failed to find anything wrong with him. Police are now investigating the case. Another two cases were reported over the weekend, both men in their fifties who had consumed too much alcohol and had fallen asleep out in the open.

  • 01/28/2007

    Professional soldiers, military police and mountain rescuers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Belgium have gathered in the Jeseniky Mountains for the 13th annual Winter Survival games organized by the Czech Defence Ministry. Winter Survival is an endurance competition simulating military patrol and rescue operations in unknown and difficult terrain. The four-day competition includes disciplines such as mountaineering, downhill and cross-country skiing, a night spent out in the open and a simulated rescue operation.

  • 01/27/2007

    The Green Party has said it is prepared to vote against a Czech-American agreement on the deployment of a US radar base on Czech territory. Ondrej Liska, head of the party's deputies' group in the lower house told Saturday's edition of Pravo that his party could not support a bilateral defense agreement between the US and the Czech Republic. If the radar base were part of a multi-lateral defense strategy it should still be approved by national referendum, Liska said. The Communist Party has also strongly rejected the idea of hosting a US radar base on Czech territory. The main opposition party of Social Democrats has not yet voiced an official stand. If it were to oppose the agreement, then the opponents of the US radar base in the lower house would outnumber its supporters.

  • 01/27/2007

    Russia said on Friday a U.S. plan to deploy an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic was a "mistake" which would have negative consequences for international security. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov rejected Washington's reassurances that the anti-missile system was meant to offset a potential rocket attack from Iran or North Korea, saying Iranian missiles could not reach Europe. President Klaus said last week he would discuss the matter with President Putin during a planned visit to Moscow in April.

  • 01/27/2007

    The Social Democratic Party is taking steps to expel rebel deputy Milos Melcak from party ranks. Mr. Melcak is one of the two deputies who helped the centre-right government win a confidence vote in the lower house a week ago. The other deputy, Michal Pohanka has already left the ranks of the Social Democratic Party. Mr. Melcak refuses to do so, insisting that he is a Social Democrat at heart and only supported the centre-right government in order to end the country's drawn out political crisis. Mr. Melcak has strongly rejected suggestions that he accepted a bribe in return for supporting the new cabinet.

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