• 07/15/2005

    A Prague court has sent three entrepreneurs to six years in prison for threatening a journalist who aired a news report about their firm's suspicious business activities. The Czech TV journalist Jiri Hynek was repeatedly accosted and threatened not to air the programme or he would be maimed. The men had already hired a man to do the job when the police arrested them. The court found that the said entrepreneurs employed similar practices in their daily business activities.

  • 07/15/2005

    The Czech army is to buy close to a thousand off-road trucks from domestic truck manufacturer Tatra, Defence Minister Karel Kuhnl told journalists on Friday. The order is worth around 5 billion crowns /200 million dollars/. The first Tatras are to be delivered next year and will replace the aging Praga V3Ss and Soviet trucks. A rival company has complained that the contract was awarded without a tender but the army chief of staff Pavel Stefka said that in this case a tender was not necessary. This view was supported by Parliament's Defence a Security committees.

  • 07/15/2005

    Nine Czechs have died while on holiday to Croatia since the beginning of the tourist season. Most of them are young people. The Croat authorities say that Czech tourists are particularly accident prone and are generally inclined to taking risks. Three Czechs drowned in the sea during the last fortnight alone, having swum too far out in spite of the locals' warnings. Two young Czech women are reported to have suffered spontaneous abortions because of staying out too long in the heat of the sun.

  • 07/14/2005

    The Austrian leader, Wolfgang Schussel, has praised a plan by his Czech counterpart Jiri Paroubek to make a conciliatory gesture towards Sudeten Germans who did not support the Nazi regime. Speaking after a meeting between the two men in Vienna on Thursday, Mr Schussel said it was important that for the first time the principle of collective guilt was not being applied to the German minority. An estimated 2.5 million Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II.

    Mr Paroubek has not yet revealed exactly what kind of gesture he is planning. But the idea has already been rejected by Slovakia's prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, and a Sudeten German group in Austria.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/14/2005

    The Czech Republic joined countries around the world on Thursday in marking two minutes silence in honour of the victims of last week's bombings in London. Meanwhile, the only Czech remaining unaccounted for since the attacks has been in touch with his family, said the Czech Foreign Ministry.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/14/2005

    Czech support for the European Constitution has fallen dramatically, suggests a poll conducted by Median for Mlada fronta Dnes. Whereas in May of this year 62 percent of Czechs were in favour, now only 21 percent are for the document, which has been rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands.

    The government has dropped plans to support a planned referendum on the constitution with an advertising campaign; it will instead launch a campaign to explain broader European issues to Czech citizens.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/14/2005

    Senior Czech state officials are temporarily to fly on special Czech Airlines flights, under an agreement reached between the national carrier and Defence Minister Karel Kuhnl. The deal comes after a series of problems with the state's own military planes. Czech Airlines has also said it will help with negotiations for the purchase of a new state plane from manufacturer Airbus, which is expected to take place in the first half of next year.

    Meanwhile, Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody is to begin making fuselage parts for Airbus, Mlada fronta Dnes reported on Thursday.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/14/2005

    The state's stake in Vitkovice Steel is being sold to the Russian company, Evraz, the government announced on Wednesday. Evraz has agreed to pay over seven billion crowns for the steelmaking giant; it will also invest 2.5 billion in the company, and put 800 million into developing the north Moravian region.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/14/2005

    The Czech non-governmental organisation People in Need has been forced to cease its activities in Chechnya, after the Russian authorities refused to extend its permit to operate in the disputed territory. Meanwhile, the Czech Foreign Ministry has come out in support of People in Need, which it described as a very experienced charity.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/14/2005

    The police have detained a group who allegedly sold military equipment abroad, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The five men and one woman are accused of illegal trading in both Czech and foreign made weapons, ammunition and computer hardware. No details have been released regarding the value of the items or to which countries the gang was exporting to.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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