• Man faces up to 15 years in jail after trying to commit suicide by car crash
    01/03/2008

    A man who tried to commit suicide by driving his car straight at another vehicle at a speed of 100 km an hour appeared in court in Zlín on Thursday on a charge of attempted murder. Rostislav Bednařík, who is 21, caused serious injury to the driver of the other car in the crash, which took place on a motorway last July. The victim, a professional soldier, said he had managed to swerve to one side to avoid a head-on collision: he said when he saw the car coming towards him he thought the driver must have had a heart attack or fallen asleep. Mr Bednařík could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Tourism body: Quarter of million Czechs holidayed over festive season
    01/03/2008

    Around a quarter of a million Czechs were on holiday over the Christmas and New Year period, according to figures released by the Association of Czech Travel Agents. The association’s spokesman Tomio Okamura told the newspaper Právo that around 170,000 Czechs had spent the festive season at mountain resorts in the Czech Republic, while around 85,000 holidayed outside the country. Mr Okamura also said holiday vouchers had sold well, with up to 200,000 Czechs receiving them as gifts at Christmas.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Passenger numbers at Prague Airport continue to rise
    01/03/2008

    Prague’s Ruzyně airport handled a record 12.44 million passengers in 2007, a rise of over 7 percent on the previous year, a spokesperson for the airport said on Thursday. An increase in passenger numbers in recent years has been partly put down to budget airlines, with almost a quarter of the airport’s passengers now flying by low-cost carriers. Officials expect up to 13 million will pass through Ruzyně’s terminals this year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Cinema attendance increases, receipts also up
    01/03/2008

    Attendance at Czech cinemas was evidently at its highest in 13 years in 2007, the Union of Czech Film Distributors said. Between the start of January and the end of November last year, just over 11.75 million viewers had watched movies in Czech cinemas, a rise of around a quarter of a million on the same period in 2006. Industry figures say the number for the whole of 2007 should reach 12.5 million. Receipts were also up, with the popularity of Czech-made films given as the reason for both increases.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Vaidisova out in quarter-finals of Australian Open warm-up competition
    01/03/2008

    The Czech women’s tennis number one Nicole Vaidišová was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Australian Women’s Hardcourts in Gold Coast on Thursday. She lost 3-6 3-6 to Li Na of China in a competition that is seen as a warm-up for the Australian Open.

    Meanwhile, Lucie Šafářová and Tomáš Berdych ended their participation in Australia’s mixed Hopman Cup on a high, beating India 2:1. The path to the final had been closed to the off-court couple after a defeat to the USA on New Year’s Eve.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Václav Havel supports Jan Švejnar in the presidential elections
    01/02/2008

    The former Czech president Václav Havel on Tuesday threw his weight behind presidential candidate Jan Švejnar. Mr. Švejnar, a Czech-born professor of economics at Michigan University has emerged as the sole rival of incumbent President Václav Klaus, who is seeking re-election. In a radio interview on New Year’s Day, Mr Havel said the country needed fresh blood and fresh motivation. Reacting to objections that Mr Švejnar has U.S. as well as Czech citizenship and hadn’t lived in the Czech Republic for years, Mr Havel said his long-term stay abroad was an advantage and argued that he shouldn’t have to renounce his U.S. citizenship in order to be considered eligible for the post.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Czech opposition: president’s New Year’s address was one of his weakest
    01/02/2008

    The chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party Jiří Paroubek has openly criticized President Klaus’ New Year’s address to the nation as one of his weakest speeches ever. “It would seem that ahead of the presidential elections Vaclav Klaus is suddenly afraid to defend his strong views on many issues,” Mr Paroubek said. According to Communist Party chairman Vojtěch Filip the speech lacked balance. The heads of the Christian Democratic Party and the Green Party said they missed a clear vision of the country’s future development in the president’s New Year’s Day address.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Senator Jaromír Štětina criticizes President Klaus
    01/02/2008

    Green Party Senator Jaromír Štětina has called on President Václav Klaus to apologise to the people who are taking efforts to “rid the Czech Republic of the Bolshevik legacy.” Mr. Štětina said the Czech head of state has recently made disgracing comments on these people, referring to President Klaus’ New Year’s address and to a comment he made before Christmas, when he said that the appeals for the abolition of the Communist Party were ridiculous. The spokesman for the Presidential Office Petr Hájek said the president hasn’t read the letter and won’t make any comments on it.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • PM Topolánek presents the government’s plans for 2008
    01/02/2008

    Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek presented the government’s plans for this year to President Václav Klaus during their traditional New Year’s lunch at the presidential chateau in Lany, just outside Prague. Topolanek said the cabinet would like to continue discussing the pension reform, complete the health care reform and launch changes in the justice system. They also debated the tactics of the Civic Democratic Party during the presidential election in February in which Mr. Klaus would seek re-election as the party’s candidate. During the meeting in Lany Mr. Topolanek also highlighted President Klaus’ New Year’s address to the nation. He said he shared the president’s view that the country is now experiencing the best time in its history.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Green Party leader warns against Jiri Cunek’s return to the government
    01/02/2008

    The head of the Green Party and Deputy Prime Minister Martin Bursík has warned the ruling Civic Democrats against accepting Jiří Čunek’s comeback to the government. Mr. Bursík has reacted to the statement of Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek who said that if the Christian Democrats insisted on their leader’s return to the government, he would yield to the pressure. The Green Party leader said he didn’t recommend the Civic Democrats to swap Jiri Cunek’s comeback for the Christian Democrats’ votes for Vaclav Klaus in the upcoming presidential election.

    The Christian Democrat chairman Jiri Cunek stepped down as deputy prime minister and minister for local development in November when an investigation into whether he had accepted bribes was reopened. The investigation has been dropped a few weeks later and Mr. Cunek now wants to be reinstated as a member of cabinet.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

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