• 03/29/2006

    An old-age pensioner who injured a thief will not go to prison, Mlada fronta Dnes reported. Oldrich Doskocil, who is 77, created a home-made gun system which was set off when a man tried to break into Mr Doskocil's unoccupied cottage. The thief was shot in the knee and spent a month recovering in hospital. A court in Pilsen ruled that the shooting constituted self defence.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/29/2006

    The number of inmates in Czech prisons reached a four-year high of almost 19,000 in 2005, according to a report by the Prison Authority. Many Czech prisons are overcrowded and the Ministry of Justice lacks the funds to build new facilities; however, there are plans to build one private prison.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/29/2006

    Czech tennis number one Radek Stepanek has been beaten in the fourth round of the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami. World number 16 Stepanek went out 3-6 4-6 to David Nalbandian of Argentina; he had earlier knocked out another Czech, Tomas Berdych.

    Meanwhile, the Czech Tennis Association said they had tried in vain to persuade Stepanek to play for the Czech team in the second round of the Davis Cup's Euro/African Zone Group against Morocco in April. Last year the player refused to play in the Davis Cup, saying he wanted to concentrate on his own career.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/29/2006

    Czech ice hockey player Jaromir Jagr has equalled two records at his club the New York Rangers. Jagr's 52 goals so far this season match the previous best at the club, while his 109 points - including goals and assists - also equals a Rangers record. The Czech leads the NHL players points table with ten games of the regular season left.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/28/2006

    Towns and villages across the Czech Republic are battling with local floods, as a result of melting snow and persistent rain. The north, south and eastern parts of the country have been hit and the army has been called in to help the worst affected areas. Two villages in the north have had to be evacuated, one of them counting 500 inhabitants. In other places firemen are pumping water from cellars and gardens. People have been filling sandbags and erecting makeshift barriers to try to protect their property. Several roads have had to be closed down. 3,000 firemen and 900 soldiers are in the field, and Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said another 800 were on standby should the situation worsen.

    The Czech capital Prague is likewise on flood alert and there are preparations to offset a small scale flood. The area between Charles Bridge and Lichtenstein Palace is being cleared out for the erection of anti-flood barriers and Prague's Troja Zoo is preparing for a possible evacuation of 1,000 animals.

  • 03/28/2006

    Preventive measures are in effect following the first incidence of bird flu in the Czech Republic. A dead swan found in the Vltava River near the town of Hluboka nad Vltavou in the south of the country, was infected with the H5 virus. Further tests are now being conducted to ascertain whether it was the deadly H5N1 variety, which is dangerous to humans. In line with EU regulations the authorities have imposed strict safety measures inside a 10 kilometrer high risk zone, including a ban on outdoor breeding and transport of birds and poultry products. Further measures will follow if the result of the tests turns out to be positive.

  • 03/28/2006

    The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has condemned the police violence in the Belarusian capital Minsk and called on President Alexander Lukashenko to resign from office. Lukashenko was recently elected for a third year term in elections that EU observers said were neither free nor fair. Many people were injured and arrested in the opposition demonstrations which followed. Mr. Havel took a written petition to the Belarusian embassy in Prague on Tuesday but was refused admission.

  • 03/28/2006

    Twenty-six political parties and groupings have registered to run in the June parliamentary elections, compared to 29 in the last national election four years ago. Latest polls suggest that five parties can be expected to pass the five-percent threshold and make it to parliament: the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, the ruling Social Democrats, the Communists, the coalition Christian Democrats and for the first time the Green Party.

  • 03/28/2006

    The Czech Republic's biggest recruitment agency Trenkwalder Kappa People warned on Tuesday that South Korean car giant Hyundai could face problems recruiting the 3,000 workers needed for its future car plant in the east of the country. The warning came a day after Hyundai announced that it will site its first European factory at Nosovice with an investment of 800 million euros. TKP's Petra Rosselova said that the unemployed in the region would probably not meet the employer's demands and that 50% of the workers needed might have to be recruited from neighbouring Poland and Slovakia. The plant is to start production in October 2008.

  • 03/28/2006

    President Klaus has signed into law a bill increasing the birth allowance and a state contribution to parents of first graders to help purchase teaching aids. As of April 2006 the birth allowance will grow from 8,600 to 17,500 crowns per child. The ruling Social Democrats have promised to increase the birth allowance still further if they win the June general elections.

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