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The police have issued an Interpol arrest warrant on a Dutch national who is believed to have kidnapped his six-year old daughter living in the Czech Republic. Rodney William Cowie, 38, allegedly picked up his daughter Charlie Tereza from her mothers’ house on Saturday morning for a day-out but failed to return her that evening as agreed. The two were last sighted at a petrol station and the police say they are having difficulties in tracing the father and daughter since they can now move freely within the EU.

The ultra-right National Party has offered to place a controversial anti-Islamic film on its website. The film by the Dutch ultra-right MP Geert Wilders describes the Koran as a fascist book that teaches intolerance and provokes violence. Several thousand people protested against it in the streets of Amsterdam over the weekend. Dutch TV channels have refused to broadcast it and the Dutch authorities fear that it could stir up violent protests in the Moslem world. A spokesman for the Czech ultra-right National Party said the 15-minute film should be broadcast all over Europe as a response to Islamic terrorism. The party has also offered its author Geert Wilders protection and asylum at an unspecified place in the Czech Republic.

The police are searching for a Dutch national who is believed to have kidnapped his six-year old daughter living in the Czech Republic. Rodney William Cowie, 38, allegedly picked up his daughter Charlie Tereza from her mothers’ house on Saturday morning for a day-out but failed to return her that evening as agreed. Cowie lives in Australia, but he spent the last three months in the Czech Republic getting close to his daughter who has been in her mother’s care since their divorce. His personal belongings have disappeared from the boarding house where he had booked a room until the end of March and he is said to have borrowed a car from his former brother in law which he failed to return.

A proposed amendment to the penal code would introduce house arrest as a form of alternative punishment, Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil said in a televised debate on Sunday. The minister is pushing for the amendment to be passed, arguing that house arrest as an alternative punishment for lighter offenses would alleviate the pressure on the country’s overcrowded jailhouses. According to the minister’s estimate a fifth of all prisoners in Czech jails – approximately 3,000 people -could be punished by house arrest. The minister argued that the cost of electronic bracelets and the respective police equipment would be cheaper than feeding and housing the offenders.