• Government human rights officials reject National Party memorial at Lety
    01/12/2006

    The Czech Republic's Human Rights Commissioner, Svatopluk Karasek, strongly opposes plans by the country's right National Party to erect a memorial at the site of a former detention camp in South Bohemia. In 1942, over 1,200 Czech Romanies were interned in the Czech-run camp before being sent to Auschwitz. An inscription on the National Party's memorial is to refute claims that the site was a concentration camp and run by Czech guards.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Catholic churches ask President and Senate to block bill on registered partnerships
    01/12/2006

    Ten churches in the Czech Republic have called on to Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the Senate (the upper house of Parliament) to reject a bill on registered same-sex partnerships. The bill was approved by the Lower House in mid-December and has yet to get the green light from the Senate and the President. One of the churches' arguments against it is that the Czech Republic has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and cannot afford to encourage homosexual partnerships.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Court of Appeals extends prison sentence for former StB agent
    01/12/2006

    A court of appeals has extended the prison sentence for former Communist secret police agent Jiri Simak. In 2002, a Prague court found him guilty of torturing political prisoners in 1981 and sentenced him to three years. The court of appeals has now increased the sentence to four years in prison. At least two former dissidents have come forward describing how Mr Simak tortured them as part of the secret police operation Asanace or Clearance, aimed at forcing opponents of the Communist regime to flee the country.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Dozens of fish found dead in river
    01/12/2006

    Fishermen and fire fighters transferred some 800 kilograms of dying fish to clean water bodies on Thursday after several dozen fish were found dead in the river Elbe near three towns in Central Bohemia. It has yet to be determined what killed the fish. Water samples have been taken to a laboratory to test for toxic substances.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Czech anti-terrorism unit to return to Afghanistan
    01/11/2006

    The government has voted to send a Czech Army anti-terrorism unit to Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Defence Minister said the contingent would be similar to one sent to the country two years ago; it had 120 members and was under United States command.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Army medical team returns from Pakistan
    01/11/2006

    Meanwhile, a 30-member Czech Army medical team has returned from Pakistan, where they had been helping survivors of a devastating earthquake which hit the country in November. The returning soldiers brought with them ten Pakistani children in need of specialised medical care.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czechs did not want capitalism after 1989, says Klaus
    01/11/2006

    Speaking at a conference on 15 years of capitalism in the Czech Republic, President Vaclav Klaus said most Czechs did not want capitalism after the Velvet Revolution but were in favour of various "third ways". Mr Klaus - who was finance minister in the early 1990s - said this reluctance to embrace capitalism was hard to believe from today's perspective. Tuesday evening's conference was attended by several other key players in post-revolution Czechoslovak politics.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • MP wants tax breaks for contributions to employee holidays in Czech Republic
    01/11/2006

    Companies would receive tax breaks for contributing towards holidays their employees spend in the Czech Republic under a proposal from Social Democrat MP Miroslav Svoboda. The daily Pravo reported that the contribution would amount to 10,000 crowns (around 400 US dollars) and said other Social Democrats backed the plan, which is aimed at supporting tourism in the Czech Republic.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • VZP gets cash injection to help speed up payment of debts to hospitals, doctors
    01/11/2006

    The biggest state health insurer, VZP, is to receive by the end of the week three billion crowns (120 million dollars) to help it pay its debts to doctors and hospitals. The health and finance ministers agreed on the move at a meeting on Wednesday. Currently there is a two-month delay in VZP payments, and this money is intended to shorten that period by around a week and a half. The health insurer has been in turmoil in recent months.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Record number of cars produced last year
    01/11/2006

    A record 600,000 cars were manufactured in the Czech Republic last year. Almost 500,000 of those vehicles were produced by Skoda Auto, with the rest made at a plant opened by Toyota and Peugeot Citroen last February. The Toyota-Peugeot Citroen plant has the capacity to make many more cars, up to 300,000 a year. A similar number could be produced by Hyundai, if it builds a plant in Moravia; a decision on that deal is due by the end of the month.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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