• Czech TV Council members to discuss case of former People's Militia member
    02/21/2007

    A closed session of the Czech Television Council has decided that Czech TV programming director Frantisek Lambert, who admits to having been a member of pre-1989 People's Militia, will remain in Czech TV's top management. Czech TV director Jiri Janecek is now under pressure for allowing Mr Lambert to hold such a high position. Mr Lambert had broken the law when he failed to declare this fact about his past.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Austrian anti-nuclear activists block border over Czech Temelin
    02/21/2007

    Austrian anti-nuclear activists again blocked two Austrian-Czech border crossings on Wednesday morning in protest at the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant, situated 60 km from the Austrian border. A group of Czech activists supporting nuclear energy arrived at one of the crossings, carrying a banner mocking the Austrian blockade. The anti-nuclear activists say they are protesting against the alleged Czech violation of an Austrian-Czech agreement on Temelin's safety and the sluggish stance of the Austrian government over the issue.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Prague Archbishop to tender resignation to Pope
    02/21/2007

    The Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, who is turning 75 in May, says he is going to hand in his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI. Under church law, all Roman Catholic bishops are obliged to step down at the age of 75 and it is up to the Pope whether he accepts it or not. Cardinal Vlk told Czech Television he plans to write his resignation in April, saying he really wishes to retire. His predecessor in the post, Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, served as Prague Archbishop until he was 92 years of age.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Constitutional Court refuses to reduce sentence to drug smuggler
    02/21/2007

    The Czech Constitutional Court has refused to reduce the prison term of Emil Novotny, who was sentenced in Thailand for drug trafficking to 50 years in jail. Mr Novotny was arrested in Thailand with over four kilograms of heroin on him in 1995. He spent nine years in Thai prisons and since 2004 he has been serving the rest of his sentence, reduced by amnesties, in the Czech Republic. At 31 he is yet to serve 17 years in prison. Mr Novotny's lawyer had argued the length of the sentence does not correspond to Czech legal standards.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Hemp cultivation legal under Supreme Court ruling
    02/21/2007

    Police say that growing hemp - which can be used to produce marijuana - is still illegal in the Czech Republic, despite a Supreme Court decision from last year. Police say the ruling only concerned once specific case when it decided growing the plant could not be considered as drug production. The anti-drug squad last year confiscated 108 kg of dried marijuana and destroyed 2,200 plants.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Cigarette consumption level despite price hikes
    02/21/2007

    The consumption of cigarettes in the Czech Republic has not decreased, despite a marked rise in prices in recent years, Pravo reported. While 23.5 billion cigarettes were sold in 2005, last year the figure was only slightly lower at 23.45 billion, the daily said. A representative of a tobacco company said, however, that the price hikes had led to increased smuggling of cigarettes from Poland and Ukraine, as well as more illegal production.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Schwarzenberg: Czechs will not be intimidated by Russia over US bases
    02/20/2007

    The Czech Republic will not be intimidated by Russia over plans to locate part of a US missile defence system on its territory, the Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, said in Warsaw on Tuesday. He said Moscow's attempts to "blackmail" the Czech Republic would only make Czechs more determined to defend themselves.

    On Monday, a senior military official in Moscow said if US bases were built in the Czech Republic and Poland, the Russian army would aim missiles at them. Under the American plan, Poland would host interceptor missiles, while the Czech Republic would be home to a radar base.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Romany women's group calls for compensation over forced sterilisations
    02/20/2007

    A Romany women's working group wants a fund established to compensate women sterilised without their consent. The group, part of the government's council for Romany affairs, is also calling for an apology, the council's head Czeslaw Walek said on Tuesday. A document prepared by the group says financial compensation should also go to women in cases which exceed the statue of limitations. The Ombudsman had previously called for damages to be paid in cases dating back as far as 1971.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Budvar brewer could be sold off to pay for roads
    02/20/2007

    The Budejovicky Budvar brewery could be privatised to finance planned road construction and maintenance, Hospodarske noviny reported. Trade Minister Martin Riman told the daily the sell-off could raise up to 30 billion CZK (1.4 billion USD). But Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovic said the privatisation of Budvar was not currently on the agenda; he said the company's legal dispute with Anheuser-Busch over the Budweiser brand name would have to be taken into account.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Cardinal rejects joint administration of St. Vitus Cathedral
    02/20/2007

    Cardinal Miloslav Vlk has rejected a suggestion that the Roman Catholic Church and the state jointly administer Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral. A ruling under which the state was ordered to hand the cathedral over to the Church was overturned by the Supreme Court last week, though the dispute is set to go on. The head of the government's Legislative Council, Cyril Svoboda, put forward the idea of joint administration while the dispute continues. But Cardinal Vlk said the most important thing was to resolve the issue.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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