News

The German automaker Volkswagen has hired two independent ombudsmen charged with rooting out corruption. The move is seen as a direct response to a fraud and bribery scandal last year involving a high-ranking official at Volkswagen's Czech daughter company, Skoda Auto. The official, a German high flyer who was seconded to Skoda as director of labour affairs, along with a senior personnel manager in Wolfsburg, were alleged to have set up fake companies in the Czech Republic, India and elsewhere to defraud local authorities seeking business with Volkswagen.

The concentration of cyanide in the river Labe has dropped below the permissible limit of 10 micrograms per litre. Experts from the river administration say that the present levels no longer present a threat to fish or river life. The concentration of cyanide is gradually declining due to the higher inflow of water from the Vltava river and the fact that river management has been increasing the flow from several reservoirs. The cyanide leak into the Labe from a chemical plant in central Bohemia on January 9th killed many tons of fish in the river and caused concern in neighbouring Germany where the Labe /Elbe/ river flows. Environmentalists say that the full extent of damage to river life will only become apparent in the spring. The chemical plant responsible faces a fine of up to 10 million crowns.

The fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir is said to have commissioned a false bill of exchange in order to discredit the ruling Social Democrats. Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan told the commercial TV station Nova that he had information that Krejcir commissioned several of his accomplices in the Czech Republic with the task of producing a false bill of exchange, which was to serve as proof that the billionaire had lent the ruling Social Democrats 60 million crowns for their election campaign. The mentioned accomplices were reportedly arrested before they could comply with the demand. Krejcir, who fled to the Seychelles last summer, has not so far been able to provide any evidence to support his claim.

A gathering of the ultra right National Party at Lety, the site of a wartime camp for Romanies, sparked an incident with Roma rights activists. Witnesses say there was a brief skirmish and two Roma rights activists, who shouted "away with neo-Nazis" were detained by the police. One of them was Markus Pape, a well known Roma rights lawyer. The police say that Mr. Pape committed a misdemeanour when he interrupted the gathering of the National Party. Mr. Pape says that he was physically attacked by three members of the party and will press charges.