• Police interview prime minister over embezzlement of EU funds
    03/15/2006

    Meanwhile, the police have interviewed the prime minister as a witness in a case involving the embezzlement of European Union subsidies in which ten people, including two former state officials, have been prosecuted. While he was local development minister Mr Paroubek ordered an analysis of some property transactions that took place at the ministry before his appointment. The current local development minister used that study as the basis of a criminal complaint filed last year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech passports set to contain digital photos, fingerprints
    03/15/2006

    Czech passports should contain digital photos from this September and digital fingerprints from May 2008, under a bill approved by the Chamber of Deputies. The legislation, already passed by the Senate, must now be signed by the president.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Teenage arrested over killing of village mayor
    03/15/2006

    A teenage boy has been arrested in connection with the killing of the mayor of the village of Liberk in east Bohemia. Mayor Jana Mala, who was 43, was found dead in her home on Tuesday morning. The youth, who cannot be named for age reasons, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Children's home employee in custody on child sex abuse charges
    03/15/2006

    A cook at a children's home in Horni Slavkov, west Bohemia has been taken into custody on suspicion of sexually abusing four boys. According to press reports, the suspect is the head of an organisation called Circle of Friends of Children's Homes.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Berdych into last eight at Indian Wells after beating Hewitt
    03/15/2006

    Czech tennis player Tomas Berdych has reached the quarter-finals in the Indian Wells Masters Series, after beating two-time winner Lleyton Hewitt 7-5 6-3. The 20-year-old Czech faces Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the next round. Last year Berdych caused an upset by winning the Paris Masters, the biggest Czech success in tennis in some years.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Former football official Hornik receives suspended sentence, fine
    03/15/2006

    Disgraced former football official Ivan Hornik has received a suspended prison term and a fine of almost 40,000 US dollars after being found guilty of corruption by a Prague court. The former head of Viktoria Zizkov football club has also been banned from holding any official position in the game for ten years. Mr Hornik paid bribes to referees and football association delegates in order to influence the outcome of Zizkov matches.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Lower house passes increase of controlled rent
    03/14/2006

    The lower house has passed a bill under which controlled rents will increase by an average 14.2 percent annually as of January 2007. Rents should be completely deregulated as of 2011. The bill has yet to be signed by the president. Around 750,000 flats are subject to rent control in the Czech Republic, which is about 1/5 of the country's housing market.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Lower House to vote on same-sex registered partnership bill on Wednesday
    03/14/2006

    The lower house of Parliament has also postponed a vote on the same-sex registered partnership bill until Wednesday. The bill already passed through both houses of Parliament but was vetoed by President Vaclav Klaus and sent back to the lower house. A majority of 101 votes is needed to override the president's veto. The Social Democrats pushed through a proposal to postpone the vote as two of their deputies, who support the bill, were unable to attend Tuesday's vote.

    If approved, gays and lesbians would - among other things - have the right to enquire about their partner's state of health and inherit property from their partners.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Lower house approves increase in maternity grant, parental allowance
    03/14/2006

    The lower house has decided to double maternity grants from 8,600 crowns to 17,500 crowns (730 dollars). Under the same bill, parents of most first-graders would receive 1,000 crowns from the state to buy school supplies. MPs have also approved an increase in parental allowance distributed to parents of children under the age of four. Both bills have yet to be signed by the president.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Lower house simplifies welfare system, approves new sickness benefit regulations
    03/14/2006

    MPs have approved a bill reducing the current 27 types of welfare benefits to three. The new system is supposed to motivate people to actively seek work and prevent welfare dependency and social exclusion. The chamber has also approved a bill under which sickness benefits in the first two weeks of illness will be paid for by the employer rather that the state which is the case now.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

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