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08/26/2008
The Czech Republic and the United States have reached agreement on the conditions to set up a US anti-missile base in the country, a defence ministry spokesman has said. Andrej Čírtek told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that all major issues had been solved, adding the Czech government could be expected to discuss the proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in September. A key follow-up agreement, it had been held up by a wrangle between Prague and Washington over taxes. Mr Čírtek said that that issue had now been solved, but did not provide details. Sealing the SOFA agreement paves the way for the Czech government to seek parliamentary approval for the US anti-missile package. The main deal on the base was signed back in July by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
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08/26/2008
The head of the National Library, Vlastimil Ježek, has made clear he will not annul an international competition which decided on the design for the new national library last year, saying such a move could lead to an arbitration dispute. Mr Ježek made the point in a letter to Culture Minister Václav Jehlička, the Czech news agency ČTK reported. The National Library head refused to follow through with the move - recommended by the Czech Anti-trust Office - on the grounds it might cost the Czech Republic over a billion crowns in compensation. A design by renowned Czech-born architect Jan Kaplický was originally chosen as the winner in the competition and was to have stood on Prague’s Letna plain, overlooking the city. But the project lost the backing of City Hall, in dispute over land and funds in the case.
Vlastimil Ježek has written the country’s Ombudsman Otakár Motejl asking his office to investigate the different positions in the dispute.
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08/26/2008
Czech paedophiles involved in a global Internet network which was uncovered by Bavarian police last week will go unpunished due to the lack of relevant legislation in the Czech Republic at the time the suspects operated at the site. A police representative made the announcement on Tuesday. Czech police managed to confirm more than 1,000 connections from Czech computers to a German child porn website, launched in Konstanz in 2006, but will not be able to prosecute persons who visited the site and downloaded material. At the time, unlike production and distribution, the possession of child porn was not punishable in the Czech Republic. The police also failed to prove that Czech suspects who downloaded child porn from the site distributed any material further.
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08/26/2008
A member of the Czech military police serving in Afghanistan was wounded on Monday in a traffic accident in the province of Logar, the site of operations for the Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), an army spokeswoman has revealed. The officer suffered minor injuries. The soldier was in a convoy of military police vehicles en route from the Czech base in Logar to Kabul. But his vehicle flipped over following a defect in a wheel. The soldier was airlifted to the US field hospital in Bagram, from where he will now be sent home to the Czech Republic. The Czechs have 400 soldiers in Afghanistan; 200 of them are deployed in Logar.
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08/26/2008
A study by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, has suggested that the population of the Czech Republic will decrease by almost one million to some 9.5 million inhabitants by 2060, mainly due to population ageing. At present people over 65 make up less than 15 percent of the Czech population, while in 52 years it will be more than one-third. This trend will also require higher budget expenditures on care for the elderly. The demographic development in other former-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe is similar. Neighbours Slovakia, for example, are to have the oldest population in Europe in 52 years, when its share of citizens over 65 is to make up over 36 percent of all inhabitants.
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08/26/2008
Fans of American hard rock will have a chance to see American legend Alice Cooper in December in the Czech Republic’s second-largest city, Brno. The appearance will be Cooper’s first in the country in eight years. A promoter said on Tuesday that the show – which will feature horror elements such as fake blood, a giant snake, and a guillotine – will see classic hits by the “shock rock” musician, as well as new songs. Mr Cooper will play Brno on December 2.
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08/26/2008
Czech footballer Milan Baroš has signed a three-year deal with Turkish giant Galatasaray Istanbul. The former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker leaves the French league’s Olympique Lyon after a year-and-a half. He spent last spring on loan to Portsmouth. Baroš was the top-scorer at Euro 2004 but has been less effective since. The player welcomed the move to the Turkish league, while a Galatasaray representative called Baroš’s joining the team a “major development”.
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08/25/2008
A spokesperson for the Defence Ministry has said that the Czech-American Status of Forces Agreement may be signed in September, and not, as Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg suggested recently, in a couple of days. The Status of Forces (or SOFA) agreement will lay down the conditions for US soldiers living and working at a planned American radar base in Brdy, Central Bohemia. According to Defence Ministry Spokesman Andrej Čírtek, the individual points of the SOFA agreement have already been approved by both Czech and American delegates. The final wording of the agreement, however, is yet to be settled.
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08/25/2008
Advertising the Czech Republic’s EU presidency will cost the government 26 million crowns (1.6 million USD), Mladá fronta Dnes reported on Monday. The paper says that devising a logo for the country’s EU presidency has cost the Czech state 50,000 crowns (just over 3,000 USD), while gifts, and pamphlets about the presidency, have already cost nearly 18 million crowns (1.1 million crowns). The rest of the sum has been put towards decorating government buildings and working out an overall visual scheme for the presidency. Prague will take over from Paris at the head of the European Union in January 2009. The Czech Republic is the second post-communist country to take over the EU presidency, after Slovenia.
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08/25/2008
The trial of two Czechs accused of smuggling rare insects from India has begun in New Dehli. Etymologists Petr Švacha and Emil Kučera were detained bug-catching in the Singalia National Park in June. They spent one month in prison and were released on bail a couple of weeks ago. If found guilty of smuggling, the pair could face up to seven years in prison. Hundreds of scientists from around the world have signed a petition calling for their release. The pair have maintained their innocence throughout.
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