• Baros fit for crucial football game against Holland
    10/07/2005

    Striker Milan Baros has given the Czech football team a boost by declaring himself fit ahead of an important World Cup qualifying game against the Netherlands in Prague on Saturday. The Czechs will be without several key players: Jan Koller, Vratislav Lokvenc, Marek Jankulovski and Vladimir Smicer are all ruled out with injury, while team captain Tomas Galasek is doubtful.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Jagr, Hasek start new NHL season in style
    10/07/2005

    Two of the Czech Republic's biggest ice hockey stars started the new NHL season in style on Thursday: forward Jaromir Jagr notched up two goals and an assist for the New York Rangers in their victory over Philadelphia, while goaltender Dominik Hasek saved a penalty in Ottawa's win over Toronto.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Doctors protest and call for minister to resign
    10/06/2005

    Doctors around the country closed down their offices on Thursday in protest at late payments from the state-run health insurance company VZP. Around a fifteen hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Health Ministry building in Prague in support of the private doctors' strike. The doctors were joined in the demonstration by pharmacists and dentists, and by some politicians from the right-wing opposition Civic Democrats.

    During the protest there were calls for the resignation of the Health Minister Milada Emmerova, who was blamed for the current cash-flow crisis. Talks between Mrs Emmerova and doctors are to continue after a two-hour meeting on Thursday afternoon ended in deadlock.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • EP legal committee recommends Zelezny be stripped of immunity
    10/06/2005

    The legal committee of the European Parliament has recommended that MEP Vladimir Zelezny, the former director of the Czech commercial television station Nova, be stripped of immunity. The final decision is to be made at an EP plenary session in late October. At a closed meeting, the committee approved the proposal by the rapporteur, Austrian Social Democrat Marie Berger, that Mr Zelezny should be put at the disposal of Czech authorities to investigate three charges, for which the Czech judiciary had asked for his parliamentary immunity to be removed.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Austria's OMV takes over Czech Aral
    10/06/2005

    The Austrian firm OMV has taken over the Czech chain of petrol filling stations Aral. OMV's director said that they planned to invest up to 5 million US dollars in the chain. He said that Aral stations will all adopt the OMV logo within the next six months, but he would not say how much OMV had paid for the company. The deal will make OMV the chain selling the largest volume of car fuel in the Czech Republic. The Polish petrochemicals concern PKN Orlen had also been interested in buying Aral.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • 44 injured in bus accident
    10/06/2005

    Forty-four people were injured in a coach accident on the D1 motorway in the direction of the Moravian capital Brno on Thursday morning. Czech police say the coach with tourists from Germany slammed into the back end of a truck. Three helicopters and nineteen ambulances rushed to the scene of the accident. Seven people, including the coach driver, are in critical condition.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Campaign to make drivers more cautious on railway crossings
    10/06/2005

    A billboard campaign has been launched to warn drivers to approach railway crossings with caution. There will also be warnings published in Czech newspapers. The campaign will be financed till the end of the year by Czech Railways, and a sponsor is being sought for it to continue next year. In 2004 there were no less than 600 hundred accidents on railway crossings, nearly a quarter of which do not have barriers. The Transport Minister, Milan Simonovsky, pointed out that, ironically, most accidents are on crossings where visibility is good.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • PM calls on doctors to cancel strike
    10/05/2005

    On the eve of Thursday's scheduled doctors' strike, Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek called on the private practitioners to cancel their strike. After Wednesday's negotiations with health insurance companies, Mr Paroubek said he expected some accommodating steps from them, too. Private doctors in the Czech Republic are going to strike on Thursday over chronically late payments from the state-run insurance company VZP.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Two TV stations fined for content of reality shows
    10/05/2005

    The Radio and Television Broadcasting Council has decided to fine the commercial TV stations Prima and Nova for the content of their respective reality shows, VyVoleni and Big Brother. TV Prima was fined 5 million crowns (200,000 dollars) and TV Nova will have to pay 4 million. According to council chairman Petr Pospichal, both channels broke the law by broadcasting scenes potentially threatening the moral development of juveniles before 10 pm.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Civic Democrats to support anti-Communism bill
    10/05/2005

    The chairman of the opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats, Mirek Topolanek, has said his party will support a Senate-proposed amendment to the criminal code banning all promotion of the communist ideology. The amendment was initiated by a group of opposition Senators and a movement called "Let's Ban the Communists". Mr Topolanek said he didn't wish the Communists to return to power after next year's elections. He said however that the amendment would probably be refused by the lower house where the leftist parties, the Communists and the Social Democrats, have a majority of 11 seats. The Communist Party currently enjoys some 13.5 percent of voter support.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

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