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05/05/2008
Labour and Social Affairs Minister Petr Nečas has promised an increase in pensions as of August of this year. The centre-right government approved the decision in view of the unexpectedly high inflation rate. In January and February prices increased by 7.5 percent year-on-year, in March by 7.1 percent. Pensions are annually indexed on January 1st but the planned raise has been made possible under a newly-approved amendment to the law which stipulates that pensions can be indexed whenever inflation exceeds 5 percent.
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05/05/2008
President Václav Klaus has signed into law a bill that will make both state and private companies financially responsible for any environmental damage they cause. The legislation was approved in response to numerous accidents that led to river and air pollution. In many cases negligence was to blame. The new law will bring the Czech Republic in line with EU legislation.
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05/05/2008
A Prague court has ruled on the legacy of Jaroslav Foglar, a famous Czech novelist who wrote adventure stories for children. Foglar left his entire estate, estimated to be worth around 10 million crowns (over 600,000 US dollars) to the Jaroslav Foglar Foundation. His will was contested by his nephew Petr Foglar, who said that his ninety-three-year-old uncle had been coerced into leaving his entire property to the fund, and being half blind in the years preceding his death he could not have known what he was signing. The court ruled on Wednesday, that Foglar’s last will is valid and that he had been fully aware of who he was leaving his money to.
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05/05/2008
Statistics indicate that the number of suicides and suicide-attempts in Prague is on the rise. Every 48 hours emergency crews are called to a suicide or attempted suicide. In 2007, 188 people died by their own hand mainly due to financial problems and relationships gone wrong. Psychologists say that the increasing demands on employees, the fast pace of life and the anonymity of big cities are to blame.
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05/04/2008
Leading Civic Democrat and Deputy Prime Minister Vlastimil Tlustý has suggested that the government’s church restitution plan may be illegal. The comments represent a serious blow to the government plan to compensate the church for confiscated property under the communist regime. The proposals were pushed by the coalition Christian Democrats and highlight continued infighting within the fractious coalition. Specifically, Mr Tlustý stated in an interview with Czech Television that the way the government had calculated the property or financial compensation which the church is set to receive is against the principles which underpin the concept of restitution and may be illegal. Mr Tlustý has been a consistent critic of the current plan, last week joining forces with the opposition Social Democrats and several other Civic Democrat MPs to put the brakes on the proposals as they currently stand.
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05/04/2008
A Czech soldier who returned on a special flight from Afghanistan along with three colleagues remains in a critical condition, according to the Czech government. All of the soldiers arrived from Afghanistan on Saturday evening aboard a special flight, which also carried the remains of a colleague killed in the country. Three of the soldiers were subsequently released from hospital, with the fourth remaining in intensive care. A military spokesperson has stated that the Czech soldier’s condition remains critical. All of the soldiers were struck by a roadside bomb in the province of Logar, to the south of Kabul. So far, three Czech soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the International Security Assistance Force was formed in late 2001.
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05/04/2008
The Czech Culture Minister Václav Jehlička has stated that there is no money to build the controversial new national library designed by Jan Kaplický. He noted that 1.9 billion Czech crowns are available for the building, while Kaplický’s design would cost around four billion crowns. Speaking in an interview on Czech Television, Mr Jehlička stated that he could not approve a project for which there was no money. Critics have noted that the delays in building the library have themselves increased the potential costs. The comments by the Culture Minister represent another blow for the prospects of the controversial “blob” as it has been nicknamed, ever being built.
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05/04/2008
Members of a Czech commando unit who violently assaulted a young man last weekend in the town of Tábor have escaped major punishment by the army and will instead have their pay docked and will also be unable to serve in the future. On Saturday, the man recovered enough to speak of his ordeal for the fist time. The twenty one year-old man was attacked in a pub after the military officers mocked his long hair and love of rock music, according to testimony given by the man. The youngster was then bundled into a car and stripped naked before being severely beaten by the army officers. The army has refused to apologise for the incident, stating that the officers were off duty and are thus not responsible for their actions. However, a separate criminal case brought by the man could see the former officers jailed for up to eight years.
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05/04/2008
A Boeing 737 was forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday evening after a stray bird was sucked into one of its engines. Following takeoff, the plane circled above Brno before landing with only one engine functioning. Around 80 people were on board. The plane, bound for Britain’s Stanstead airport was then held at the airport overnight. Passengers finally took off for London on Saturday. Brno airport has stated that the incident was not particularly serious.
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05/04/2008
A lost opera by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi has premiered in Prague after being unearthed in Germany by a Czech musician. The opera, called Argippo, has not been heard for 278 years – it was played also in Prague in 1730. Soon after, the opera disappeared. The story is a tale of "passion, love and trickery" in an Indian maharaja's court. Only around two-thirds of the score has survived in a readable condition, thus musician Ondřej Macek, who located the score, has had to pad it out with arias from other Vivaldi works. The opera was performed at Prague castle.
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