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10/12/2005
The Czech Republic has dispatched a special aid plane to Islamabad to help treat the victims of earthquake hit Pakistan. The plane was not loaded with humanitarian aid, as originally planned, but carried all materials necessary to fully equip a field hospital, including 30 beds. A team of 14 civilian and military medical workers and nine fire fighters are also on board the plane.
The Czech government has earmarked 25 million crowns (a little over one million US dollars) for aid to northern Pakistan.
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10/12/2005
The Seychelles will not release fugitive billionaire Radovan Krejcir, who is being prosecuted for extensive fraud and conspiracy to murder in the Czech Republic. Seychelles authorities are cooperating with the Czech police but have refused to extradite Krejcir on the grounds that he is a Seychelles citizen. Krejcir bought Seychelles citizenship back in 1996, a fact that has evoked criticism in the local press. He escaped from the Czech Republic this summer during a police raid of his villa.
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10/12/2005
The European Parliament will discuss on Thursday whether to strip Czech MEP Vladimir Zelezny, the former director of the Czech commercial television station Nova, of immunity. The Czech judiciary has asked for Mr Zelezny's parliamentary immunity to be removed a he is under investigation for tax evasion and damaging a creditor. Earlier this month, the European Parliament's legal committee recommended Mr Zelezny be put at the disposal of the Czech authorities.
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10/12/2005
The Czech Republic remains one of the worst polluters and least efficient users of energy within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an OECD report says. The production of hazardous waste remains three to four times higher than elsewhere in Europe and limits on the levels of dangerous substances in water were often significantly exceeded during the review period between 1998 and 2005. Moreover the poor air quality, particularly in Prague and the industrial regions in the north and north east of the country pose a threat to people's health, the report warned.
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10/11/2005
Pakistan, which is dealing with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, has taken up a Czech offer of humanitarian aid. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said a special plane carrying a fifteen-member medical team would be ready to leave the Czech Republic around mid-day on Wednesday. The doctors and nurses are expected to join one of the field hospitals already working in the region. The plane will be loaded with sleeping bags, surgical equipment, medicine, food, and items for disinfection and water purification.
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10/11/2005
Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has stated he does not expect any change in good Czech-German relations under Angela Merkel, Germany's new incoming chancellor. Mr Paroubek described Mrs Merkel as a very "realistic" politician. Continuity in Czech-German foreign policy under Germany's new grand coalition could be expected, he said, also because the Social Democrats (SPD) were expected to fill the foreign ministry post.
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10/11/2005
The leaders of the Czech governing coalition have agreed on setting up a commission to investigate the privatization of the petrochemicals firm Unipetrol, going back to the company's founding in the early 90s. The ruling Social Democrats are suspected of having taken bribes and sold Unipetrol to PKN Orlen of Poland under highly unfavourable conditions for the Czech Republic. A Polish Parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances of the privatization recently suggested that the Czech Republic had lost billions of crowns in the process.
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10/11/2005
Private doctors, pharmacies and hospitals should start receiving overdue reimbursement payments from the largest Czech insurance company VZP within a week, according to Jan Jelinek the deputy chairman of the Private Doctors Association. The government recently earmarked 3.8 billion crowns in emergency aid to help stabilize the cash-flow problems in the health sector, but critics of the government say the problem cannot be resolved without far-reaching structural reforms. The money crisis in the health sector was brought to a head last Thursday when private physicians held a one day strike to protest the poor payment morale of insurance companies, particularly VZP.
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10/10/2005
The Czech Republic and Iraq have signed an agreement on a Czech donation of military firearms as well as uniforms to be used by Iraqis in the protection of significant cultural sites. The agreement, signed by the Czech defence minister and the Iraqi ambassador to Prague, will see some 1,500 submachine guns, 50 machine guns, and 1,500 uniforms no longer in use by the Czech Army, to be donated for Iraqi personnel to guard sites that have been subject to heavy looting and damages since the outbreak of war in Iraq. The donated material is expected to reach Iraq in several weeks in a transport delivery organised by NATO. The Iraqi government has classified the donation as "humanitarian" rather than military.
In total the Czech government has put forward some 78 million US dollars in recent years towards the reconstruction of Iraq, funds used in humanitarian aid, the running of a Czech field hospital in Basra, and the training of Iraqi police.
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10/10/2005
In related news, the Czech Army has said it is prepared to send humanitarian aid to areas stricken by recent natural disasters, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India hit by a devastating earthquake in Central and South Asia, and Guatemala in Central America, hit by Hurricane Stan and resulting mudslides. According to the Army, materials sent to individual countries could include tents and blankets, depending on the situation. Funds for Guatemala are also likely to be set aside by the Czech Republic - but a concrete decision has not been taken yet.
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