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08/15/2007
Marcela Urbanova, the key witness in the recently closed case involving deputy prime minister Jiri Cunek has filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court against the state attorney's decision to halt the investigation. The deputy prime minister was suspected of having accepted a half a million crown bribe when serving as mayor of Vsetin in 2002 and Marcela Urbanova, his secretary at the time, claims that he boasted to her about having accepted the bribe. The investigation lasted for six months and was halted last week by state attorney Arif Salichov on the grounds of lack of evidence. Salichov also questioned the credibility of Mrs. Urbanova and said that charges might be brought against her for giving false testimony.
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08/15/2007
The mandate and immunity committee of the lower house on Wednesday postponed a debate on whether to strip Communist Party deputy Josef Vondruska of his parliamentary immunity. Vondruska is suspected of having tortured prisoners under the former Communist regime when he worked as a prison guard. Police want to question the deputy about his past activities following charges of brutality filed by former political prisoners. Vonduska has dismissed the accusation, saying that the case was a pretext to damage the Communist Party. According to Communist Party leader Vojtech Filip, the chamber may vote on Vondruska's case in September.
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08/15/2007
Poultry meat prices on the Czech market will increase considerably owing to growing prices of grains and other inputs, representatives of breeders and meat processors said at a news conference of the Agricultural Chamber on Wednesday. Some meat processors say they expect to charge up to 30 percent more; the actual price growth will depend on talks with retailers. A price hike also can be expected on pork even though it may be slower.
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08/15/2007
Europe's largest low-cost airline Ryanair will be flying from Prague to Dublin and back every day as of November 7th. Its rivals on the route are Czech Airlines and Aer Lingus. Ryanair expects to carry over 100,000 passengers in the first year, sales director for central Europe Tomasz Kulakowski said. He said the flights are likely to be used mainly by Irish tourists. A survey conducted by the Czech Local Development Ministry has shown that Irish tourists are the biggest spenders in the Czech Republic, spending on average 2,800 crowns daily.
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08/14/2007
The lower house started debating the government's controversial reform package on Tuesday. The debate was opened by Finance Minister, Miroslav Kalousek, who reiterated that the aim of the package was to reduce the deficit in public spending to below 3% GDP. The opposition responded that the reforms were 'against all plain common sense'. If approved, the reforms will have an impact on almost all areas of life. Among the most controversial are the proposed income and corporate tax reforms, and a financial restructuring of the health system, bringing with it the introduction of medical fees.
The opposition is against the package and, with the smallest of majorities, the ruling coalition of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Greens will need the support of every one of its deputies to push the reforms through. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has linked his cabinet's future to the success of the reforms, saying that he will resign if they fail to win approval.
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08/14/2007
In protest against the planned reforms, trade unions staged a mass demonstration outside of the lower house on Tuesday afternoon. Several hundred people took part in the protests. Shortly before the government started their debate on the reforms, union representatives handed over a sack of letters lobbying individual MPs. Trade unions say that the proposed reforms will benefit the rich and hurt the middle and lower classes.
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08/14/2007
Meanwhile, the results of an opinion poll conducted by the Median agency indicate that 55% of Czechs understand and accept the need for reform. Only 10% of Czechs strictly oppose it. The highest rate of support comes from people aged 18 to 24. Labour and SocialAffairs Minister Petr Necas said this was "encouraging news".
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08/14/2007
The case against Tomas Cermak, the police officer who was accused of beating-up Green party deputy Katerina Jacques, is to be reopened. The announcement was made by a spokesman for the State Attorney's Office on Wednesday morning. Mrs Jacques accuses Mr Cermak of attacking and beating her for no reason during an Anti-Nazi May-Day protest march back in 2006.
Following on from the incident, Mr Cermak lost his job and was charged with abuse of public office. But his case was shelved in November last year, when the State Attorney concluded that there were insufficient grounds for prosecution, and that Mr Cermak had acted in line with police regulations when he arrested Mrs Jacques. Mr Cermak now awaits trail.
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08/14/2007
At a press conference marking the fifth anniversary of the devastating 2002 floods, mayor of Prague Pavel Bem said that the City Hall had invested 2 billion CZK (100 million USD) into flood protection. He said that 95% of the city was now protected against a disaster of such magnitude and that in the event of a flood, the new protection system could be erected within 24 hours. 40 billion CZK have gone into construction and reconstruction work.
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08/14/2007
The head of the Social Democrats, Jiri Paroubek, and former Health Minister, David Rath, would like to postpone presidential elections until the 7th of March 2008 at the earliest, reported Lidove Noviny on Tuesday. The current president Vaclav Klaus' mandate expires on the 7th of February, and if elections were put-back, then he would be forced to move out of Prague Castle, where he currently holds office, and lose the right to his current PR team. Mr. Rath told Lidove Noviny that this would only be fair, allowing any candidate running against Mr Klaus in the 2008 elections the same privileges as the current president. Civic Democrat MPs have called this an attempt to 'humiliate' the president, and are describing the suggestion as 'petty'. The suggestions have not been heeded by the head of the lower house, who has said that he will not be calling elections any later than the 8th of February.
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