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01/17/2007
The Civic Democratic Party's executive body has assessed a report by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek outlining preparation for Friday's confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies, and praised steps taken by party negotiators. The news was made public Wednesday evening by the party's first deputy chairman Pavel Bem. On Wednesday the body also approved the policy statement of the coalition government, including a number of last-minute changes, concessions to the two rebel Social Democrat MPs who have agreed to leave the chamber during Friday's vote.
The development marks a turn-around in fortunes for the prime minister who faced criticism from some Civic Democrats in recent weeks. Mr Bem stressed that Mr Topolanek had broad support from the party leadership. He himself was one of Mr Topolanek's more prominent critics concerning efforts at forming a coalition government with the Christian Democrats and the Greens. On Wednesday Mr Bem expressed confidence all Civic Democrats would vote in favour of the centre-right cabinet during Friday's vote.
Poll: Bem, Parkanova most popular politicians
A new poll released by the STEM agency has suggested that Prague Mayor Pavel Bem and Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova currently top public popularity. Mrs Parkanova and Mr Bem were rated favourably by 63 percent of those queried, followed by Jiri Cunek, the head of the Christian Democratic Party, and Martin Bursik, leader of the Greens. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek was seventh on the list with 38 percent favourability, while Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek was tenth. Communist Party leader Vojtech Filip rounded out the bottom of the list, finishing twelfth.
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01/17/2007
Police have called off extra security teams at church schools in Prague: those had been under tight scrutiny since last week, after police received an anonymous bomb threat. A spokesman made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that the schools would still be checked by regular patrols. Last Thursday experts labelled as "very serious" a bomb threat targeting the capital's forty or so church schools leading to heightened security measures and extensive searches at school premises. Many parents were warned ahead of time to keep their children at home. No evidence of a bomb was uncovered.
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01/17/2007
The AFP news agency has reported that a court in the region of Olomouc has confirmed that a Czech hospital in the east of the country should apologise to a 24-year-old Romany woman for having sterilized her without her consent. At the same time, the court also ruled she is not entitled to compensation. The landmark case is the first of around eighty complaints submitted by Romany women who say they were sterilized without permission. The latest ruling confirmed an earlier decision in November against which both the hospital and the Romany woman, Helena Ferencikova, appealed.
Mrs Ferencikova was sterilized in 2001 at a hospital without consent after giving birth to her second child. Hospital doctors said that it carried out in the interests of the patient's health and that she had signed a letter of agreement. But, Mrs Ferencikova has said she was only given the document to sign when she was already in the throes of birthing pains.
She had been asking for compensation of one million crowns, (the equivalent of around 45,000 US dollars). The court has sought guidance from the Supreme Court on whether or not she may entitled to financial compensation for moral damages suffered.
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01/17/2007
The Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova has stated that the government has now approved the deployment of the 6th field hospital to Afghanistan. The unit will operate at Kabul airport. If both houses of parliament approve the mission, hospital personnel will leave for Afghanistan in March. The sending of the hospital unit with around 70 personnel for one year will cost 150 million crowns (the equivalent of around 7 million US dollars) to be covered by the Defence Ministry budget. The ministry says that NATO could defray a part of the costs. The mission to Afghanistan was requested by NATO last year. The unit has been deployed in that country before and has also operated in Iraq.
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01/17/2007
Young Czech tennis star Nicole Vaidisova has made it through to the third round at the Australian Open, easily defeating Venezuelan player Milagros Sequera (ranked 95th in the world)6:2, 6:1. The match lasted less than one hour.
In the men's competition Radek Stepanek was two sets to nil down before he battled back against fellow compatriot Lukas Dlouhy to make it to the third round.
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01/16/2007
Two rebel Social Democrat deputies - Milos Melcak and Michal Pohanka - have confirmed that they will allow the centre right government to win Friday's confidence vote by absenting themselves from the vote. The two men appeared at a press conference given by Prime Minister Topolanek and said that their main motive was to end the country' prolonged political agony. The prime minister said that he had promised to consult them both on any major reform bills presented to Parliament. Due to the even division of power in the lower house the centre-right cabinet needs support from at least one left-wing deputy in order to survive Friday's confidence vote.
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01/16/2007
Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek has appealed to all Social Democrat Deputies not to break party ranks in Friday's confidence vote. In an open letter sent to the two party rebels, who left the Social Democrat deputies group in parliament, Mr. Paroubek urged them to remember the promises they'd made to their voters and uphold the party's policy line.
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01/16/2007
The speaker of the lower house, Social Democrat MP Miloslav Vlcek says he may postpone his resignation, originally planned for Wednesday, until after Friday's confidence vote. The Social Democrats announced last week they wanted Mr. Vlcek's resignation and the election of a new speaker to be put on the agenda of Wednesday's session of the lower house. They proposed Mr. Vlcek's re-election. The right wing parties have criticized the move saying that the Social Democrats were trying to get the upper hand in the lower house in view of a possible third attempt at forming a government should the centre-right government fail to win Friday's confidence vote. The speaker of the house has the right to nominate the prime minister designate in a third attempt to form a government.
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01/16/2007
Social Democrat deputy Frantisek Vnoucek resigned on Tuesday for health reasons. Mr. Vnoucek whose health has been very poor in recent weeks said he did not want to risk damaging his party by his absence in the upcoming confidence vote. The ailing deputy is to be replaced by Zdenek Kotous, who is expected to take his deputy's oath on Wednesday.
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01/16/2007
According to a poll just out, 59 percent of Czechs disapprove of the scandal surrounding the prime minister's private life. Fifty-five percent of respondents said they did not like the fact that the prime minister had built his election campaign around family-values, at a time when he already had a mistress. Only 15 percent said this was normal election campaign strategy. The prime minister recently announced he was leaving his wife for his mistress, who is expecting a baby.
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