• Czechs return to second in football world rankings
    12/19/2005

    The Czech Republic remain in second place in the rankings of world football's governing body, FIFA. The standings for December were released on Monday, showing Brazil in first place and Holland in third. The Czech team are currently looking forward to next year's World Cup in Germany, the first time the country has reached the competition in 16 years.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Strong winds, heavy snow blamed for road deaths
    12/18/2005

    The strong winds and heavy snow which have hit the Czech Republic in recent days have been blamed for a number of deaths on Czech roads. Eleven people were killed in accidents on Friday and Saturday, with the police called out to almost 2,000 accidents. A police spokesperson said it looks like being one of the most tragic weekends of 2005 on Czech roads.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • State to help ethnic Czechs from Kazakhstan relocate to Czech Republic
    12/18/2005

    The Foreign Ministry is to help 200 ethnic Czechs living in Kazakhstan return to the Czech Republic next year, Czech Television reported. The ministry is to spend around a million US dollars helping them find work and accommodation. Their families moved to Kazakhstan in two waves, in the mid-19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Customs make major heroin seizure on Slovak border
    12/18/2005

    Czech customs officers have seized 19 kg of heroin in a truck entering the country from Slovakia. The find has been partly credited to use of a large mobile x-ray detector. A spokesman said the heroin was moving along the so-called Balkan trail, on which Czech customs also seized a large quantity of the drug earlier this year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Communist Youth stage protest over threatened banning
    12/18/2005

    The Union of Communist Youth has staged a protest outside the Constitutional Court in Brno against moves to ban the organisation because it promotes violent revolution. The Interior Ministry has threatened to outlaw the group if they do not change their policies, on the grounds that the young Communists are registered as a civic association, not a political party. They say they have no intention of dropping their call for a workers' revolution.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • CzechInvest official: Hyundia investment would increase GDP by 1.5 percent
    12/18/2005

    If the South Korean company Hyundai opens a car plant in Moravia Czech gross domestic product could increase by 1.5 percent in the year 2009, an official from state agency CzechInvest said on Czech Television on Sunday. A deal has been struck to buy land for the proposed plant, which would employee 3,000 people; a decision on whether it will be built is due by the end of the year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Former bodyguards of fugitive businessman arrested
    12/18/2005

    The police have arrested two boxers who acted as bodyguards for fugitive businessman Radovan Krejcir, the Sunday newspapers reported. The two recently visited Mr Krejcir in the Seychelles, where he fled after escaping from the Czech police. Meanwhile, the businessman says he will release documents proving he paid bribes to the governing Social Democrats. Radovan Krejcir is wanted on charges of plotting the murder of a customs officer and large scale fraud.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • EU budget agreement satisfactory for Czech Republic, says Paroubek
    12/17/2005

    The Czech prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, says he is extremely satisfied with the compromise European Union budget agreed on by EU leaders in the early hours of Saturday morning. He said most of the Czech Republic's demands had been met in Brussels and the country could receive up to 3.1 billion euros a year net in the period 2007 to 2013.

    Mr Paroubek added that Czechs could receive more per capita from EU cohesion funds than any other state.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Two die as bad weather causes havoc around country
    12/17/2005

    Snowstorms and winds of up to 144 km an hour have killed two people, as well as uprooting trees and cutting off power supplies around the Czech Republic. One man died when a tree fell on his car, while another was killed in a traffic accident on an icy road.

    In the capital some Christmas markets had to be closed and Prague Castle had to lock its gates because of fears of falling roof tiles.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech BBC to close after rescue plan fails
    12/17/2005

    The Czech BBC is to cease broadcasting. After the BBC World Service axed it and several other language services, the Czech BBC had hoped to continue as part of BBC Worldwide with commercial backing. But efforts to save the station failed: its current affairs broadcasting will end next Friday, while news bulletins will cease on January 31st.

    Meanwhile the BBC World Service is hoping to win the agreement of the Czech Broadcasting Council to maintain its English broadcasting in the Czech Republic.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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