• A Brno court has refused to extradite businessman Frantisek Priplata back to Romania to serve prison term
    12/12/2005

    The regional court in Brno on Monday refused to extradite a Czech businessman to Romania, where he faces an eight-year prison sentence for incitement to murder. Frantisek Priplata was implicated in the murder of a Romanian official killed in 2000. Romanian prosecutors said that Priplata wanted to end a series of strikes at a local plant that had been bought by a Czech company. He escaped while being transferred to a local prison in Romania and returned home via Hungary this year.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Former foreign minister and current MEP Josef Zieleniec to lead SNK-ED joint election effort in 2006
    12/12/2005

    The former Czech foreign minister Josef Zieleniec, now a member of the European Parliament, will be the national leader for two small parties competing in next year's general elections. Mr Zieleniec will campaign for the Association of Independent Candidates (SNK) and the European Democrats (ED). He will also be the two parties' joint candidate for the post of prime minister, although he will not run for parliament in the Czech Republic. The Association of Independent Candidates and the European Democrats expect to fully merge and become one party in January.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • The Czech Republic is on target to end the year with its best annual growth rate in a decade, say economists in poll
    12/12/2005

    The Czech Republic is on target to end the year with its best annual growth rate since 1995. Although GDP growth slowed to 4.9 percent in the third quarter, economists polled by the CTK news agency said they expect it to top 5 percent, which is three times that of the European Union average. The export of automobiles and high-tech products to other EU countries is expected to contribute most to GDP growth.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic won a World Cup ski jumping event on Sunday and now leads overall standings
    12/12/2005

    Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic won a World Cup ski jumping event on Sunday in Harrachov, Czech Republic to claim his third victory of the season. Janda led after a first-round jump of 138.5 metres and his 141-metre leap was also the longest of the second round. He collected 287.1 points on the K125 hill. Janne Ahonen of Finland finished second with 281.7 points and Switzerland's Andreas Kuettel was third with jumps of 132 and 137.5 metres for 268.6 points. Janda now leads the overall standings with 452 points, followed by Kuettel and Ahonen.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Prime Minister wants officers who beat up man punished
    12/11/2005

    Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek says three police officers who were caught on tape beating a young man cannot go unpunished. Speaking in a TV discussion programme on Sunday, Mr Paroubek criticised an Interior Ministry investigation, which concluded that the police officers had not broken the law. A video tape shows how the officers beat and kick a defenceless man lying on the ground at last July's CzechTek music festival.

    Mr Paroubek says the young man would surely win his case if he turned to the state prosecution for help. The leader of the Christian Democrats, Miroslav Kalusek, also criticised the investigation, saying the system that monitors police action is inefficient because it is controlled by the Interior Ministry.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • OECD report: Czechs among nations with lowest hourly wages
    12/11/2005

    Of the 30 nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Czech Republic has one of the lowest hourly wages. On average Czechs make 3.41 euros an hour, the internet server Mesec.cz reported on Sunday. The only countries with lower wages than that are Poland, Slovakia, and Mexico. This is because Czechs work longer hours, the server says - an average of 164.3 hours a month, while the only OECD country that tops that is Korea with 199.2 hours a month. With an average salary of 28 euros an hour, Denmark tops the list.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Defence Minister Karel Kuhnl visits Iraq
    12/11/2005

    Defence Minister Karel Kuhnl is on an official two-day visit to Iraq. Mr Kuhnl held talks with the head of the Multi National Division in the South East, Major General Jonathan Riley, visited the 100-strong Czech military police contingent at Shaiba base, and also met with the six-member medical team that is working with the contingent. The Czech military police have been training Iraqi police in southern Iraq since 2003. The contingent's mandate was to end at the beginning of 2005 but was prolonged until the end of the year.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Electronic road toll system could bring in up to 20 billion crowns a year
    12/11/2005

    Transport Minister Milan Simonovsky says an electronic road toll system, which is to be introduced in 2007, could bring in up to 20 billion Czech crowns (a little under 860 million US dollars). If only lorries above 12 tonnes are tolled, the Czech state would make around 10,5 billion crowns a year but if vehicles above 3,5 tonnes are included in the toll system then the country could get up to 20 billion crowns, Mr Simonovsky said on Sunday.

    At the moment, the state makes around 1 billion crowns off special coupons that drivers have to buy to use the country's motor-ways. The new electronic toll system is to be provided by the Austrian company Kapsch.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Professor says EU could lose up to 2 percent of its population in case of flu pandemic
    12/11/2005

    Up to two percent of the European Union's population could die if a flu pandemic were to break out, according to the grimmest prognosis made at a WHO conference in Prague on Sunday. In an interview for the CTK news agency, Professor Albert Osterhaus from the Rotterdam university medical centre Erasmus MC warned the EU has prepared little for a possible flu pandemic, despite the fact that the lives of up to five million people are at risk. Professor Osterhaus says an action plan ought to be drawn up in Brussels for all EU member states to follow in the case of a pandemic.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Bethlehem light of peace now in Czech Republic
    12/11/2005

    The Bethlehem light, a light which symbolises hope and peace every Christmas, is now in the Czech Republic. Every year, a child collects the light from the grotto in Bethlehem where Jesus Christ was born. It is then flown to Vienna and distributed to scouts from across Europe who take it back to their own countries. The first time the light was distributed to the Czech Republic was in December 1989. As has become tradition, the light also shines in the lobby of the Czech Radio building, from which people can light their own candles.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

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