• Government buys out leaking dangerous waste dump
    02/02/2009

    The Czech government has agreed that it will buy a leaking dangerous waste dump in Moravia for 23 million crowns, or just over a million US dollars, in order to have it fixed, the Czech news agency ČTK reported on Monday. The dump site, established in the community of Pozďátky in western Moravia in 1994, contains thousands of tons of chemicals which began leaking into a nearby stream; the government has been trying to buy the site for more than six years. The environment ministry said immediate emergency measures would cost another 17 million crowns.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • German police finds human arms that belong to a torso found in western Bohemia
    02/02/2009

    DNA testing revealed on Monday that two human arms, found by the German police, belonged to a torso discovered by police last week in western Bohemia. The two countries’ police forces started cooperating on the case after a hunter found a human torso without the head, arms and legs in a forest near Všeruby in western Bohemia, close to the border with Germany, last week. The police disclosed that the dead person was a 35-year-old German man.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Price of apartments in Prague drop
    02/02/2009

    The price of apartments in Prague dropped by 1.7 percent in the last quarter of 2008, for the first time since 2005, the Czech Statistical Office said on Monday. The gradual rise in apartment prices over the last three years has come to a halt as well.
    Author: Jan Richter

  • Dientsbier: US will never build radar base in Czech Republic
    02/01/2009

    The chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee says he believes the United States will never build a radar base in the Czech Republic. Jiří Dientsbier, who was Czechoslovakia’s first post-communist foreign minister, said on Sunday that the Obama administration had indicated it would drop plans for an anti-missile defence shield that would include a radar base in central Bohemia. Speaking on a TV debate programme, he also said US Vice President Joe Biden had always been against the successor to the so-called “Star Wars” programme of the 1980s. Mr Dientsbier said the global financial crisis could make a good pretext for abandoning the project.

    Opinion polls have consistently suggested that around two thirds of Czechs are opposed to the planned radar base. Prague and Washington have signed treaties on the radar, though the lower house of the Czech Parliament has not yet voted on the matter.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Klaus attacks anti-global warming campaigner Gore in Davos
    02/01/2009

    The Czech president, Václav Klaus, attacked the climate change campaigner Al Gore in Davos on Saturday. Mr Klaus reiterated his belief that global warming did not exist, adding that he was sorry people like Mr Gore were, unlike him, not ready to listen to competing theories. He said environmentalism and “global warming alarmism” challenged our freedom, and the former US vice president was an important person in that movement.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Klaus afraid global financial crisis could be misused to curtail free market
    02/01/2009

    Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the Czech president also said he was more worried about the consequences of the global financial crisis than the crisis itself. Mr Klaus, an economist by profession, said he was afraid the crisis would be misused to radically curtail the functioning of the free market.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Green card system begins in earnest as first 30-day period expires
    02/01/2009

    Workers from 12 countries can begin applying for new green cards for the Czech Republic from Sunday. However, with unemployment rising in the country, it is unclear how many foreign workers will avail of the joint work and stay permit scheme, which requires that employers prove unable to find a Czech or EU citizen to fill a position for a period of 30 days (the first 30-day period has just ended). Among countries whose citizens can take part are Ukraine and former Yugoslav states. Vietnam and Mongolia, whose citizens have been coming to the Czech Republic in increasing numbers in recent years, have not been included in the green card scheme.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Rebel Greens set up anti-Bursík group
    02/01/2009

    Rebel members of the smallest party in the governing coalition the Greens have set up a group called Democratic Challenge. The faction, who are opposed to the leadership of Greens chairman Martin Bursík, was set up by Dana Kuchtová, a former education minister who was forced to resign in September 2007. Ms Kuchtová said she hoped the party would return to operating democratically. For his part, Mr Bursík said he was sorry he had not been able to stop his opponent setting up the group.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Gold discs become easier to earn as CD sales fall
    02/01/2009

    The Czech branch of a music industry umbrella organisation has reduced the number of sales artists need to attain a gold disc. Six thousand rather than the previous 7,500 sales are now enough to earn musicians the accolade, a spokesperson for the Czech office of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said. The number has been lowered because of a decline in CD sales of around 10 percent year-on-year. Sales of 12,000 CDs are rewarded with a platinum disc. Selling 30,000 copies of an album is considered very successful on the Czech market.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Jágr out of Czech squad for Swedish Games due to illness
    02/01/2009

    The ice hockey star Jaromír Jágr has pulled out of the Czech Republic’s squad for the forthcoming Swedish Games because of illness. Tickets for the Czech Republic’s opening game at Prague’s O2 Arena this Thursday sold out on the news that Jágr had agreed to play in his first international tournament since 2006.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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