• Popularity of Svejnar increasing
    12/22/2007

    The popularity of Czech presidential candidate Jan Svejnar is increasing, according to a poll conducted by the STEM agency. The results of the poll suggest that 34 percent of respondents would like to see the incumbent Vaclav Klaus re-elected to the post. However, the same number of people would prefer to see his rival Jan Svejnar in the post. In a poll conducted in November, almost half of respondents didn’t know Jan Svejnar at all and only 15 percent wanted to see him as president. Mr Klaus’s popularity may be falling due to his unwillingness to participate in a televised debate with his opponent. He recently rejected Mr Svenjar’s offer of a one-on-one debate on the grounds that his views were well known and he had already proved himself in the office.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Czech Republic last to secure EU funds for research and education
    12/22/2007

    A Czech operational programme aimed at drawing EU funds for support in the field of science is likely to be the last of all EU countries’ programmes to be approved by the European Commission. Czech officials will negotiate the details of the programme in late March at the earliest. The operational programme will make the Czech Republic eligible for up to 54 billion crowns (the equivalent of roughly 3 billion US dollars) in EU subsidies. Delays in the implementation of the programme forced Dana Kuchtova of the Green Party to step down as education minister in October.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • New baby box opened in Pelhrimov
    12/22/2007

    A new baby box for mothers who want to give up their unwanted babies was installed in Pelhrimov, south Bohemia. Local councillors decided to establish a baby box after a child had been found abandoned at a hospital toilet earlier this year. Ten babies have been left in a baby box since they were established two and a half years ago. The last baby was placed in a baby box in Prague last week-end. Until now, five baby boxes have been operating in the country and three more are to be set up next year.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Most Czechs say Benes decrees should continue to be valid
    12/22/2007

    Most Czechs believe that the post-war decrees of the then Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes, which stripped local Germans of Czechoslovak citizenship and property rights, should continue to be valid. However, the number of those advocating this opinion has been steadily declining in the past five years, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. The results also suggest that the number of those who regard the post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia as a just step has been on decline as well. In the recent poll 48 percent of people said that that the expulsion of Sudeten Germans was a right step. Five years ago this opinion was expressed by 60 percent of respondents.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Bethlehem light arrives in the CR
    12/22/2007

    The Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, Prague mayor Pavel Bem and wife of the Czech president Livia Klausova have taken over the symbolic Bethlehem Light from scouts in St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle. On Saturday, scouts distributed the Bethlehem Light by train all over the country. Until Christmas Eve people can come to light their own candles in the cathedral as well as in the lobby of the Czech Radio building in Prague. The Bethlehem Light tradition was established by the Austrian radio station ORF in 1986. In the Czech Republic, this tradition started after the fall of communist regime in 1989.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Highest building in the CR completed
    12/22/2007

    The highest building in the Czech Republic located at Prague’s district of Pankrac has been finished and it is ready for its first tenants. The City Tower building is 109 metres high, with 27 floors and 800 underground parking places. The construction of the building started in 1983 and it was originally to become the main centre of the former Czechoslovak Radio. It was bought in 2000 by its current owner, the ECM developer.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • First Starbucks café to open in the CR
    12/22/2007

    The world’s largest coffee-shop chain, US based Starbucks, will launch its first café in the Czech Republic in the recently opened Palladium shopping mall in the centre of Prague. The company plans to launch their branches in the Czech Republic and Poland at the beginning of next year.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Czechs celebrate Schengen entry
    12/21/2007

    The Czech Republic and eight other EU members joined the Schengen border free-zone at midnight Thursday. The lifting of border controls has created a vast border-free zone for 400 million Europeans in 24 countries stretching from Spain to Estonia. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended celebrations at the border crossings Zittau-Friedenstrasse-Hradek nad Nisou, where the three countries’ borders meet, hailing the Schengen expansion as an important step to a one-tier Europe.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • New security measures in force
    12/21/2007

    The Schengen expansion has taken years of preparation and the European Union estimates that about one billion euros (1.4 billion dollars) has been spent on improving security on the zone's new outer frontiers. The Czech Republic has no outer frontiers, bordering only with other Schengen members but its international airports have all introduced tighter security measures.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Legal battle over St. Vitus continues
    12/21/2007

    The legal battle between the Czech Catholic Church and the state over the ownership of St. Vitus Cathedral is set to continue. The Catholic Church on Friday appealed the district court’s most recent verdict according to which St. Vitus rightly belongs to the state. The dispute over Prague’s famous 14 century cathedral has dragged on for 14 years. The case will now go to the Prague City Court for the third time.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

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