News

Greece will not use a Czech helicopter to extinguish extensive forest fires that broke out in the Peloponnese peninsula, a Czech foreign ministry spokesperson said. The Czech Republic had offered to send a police helicopter equipped to extinguish fire during flight. However, the Greek authorities announced that due to help from international community, the country has now enough resources to bring the fires to an end. The Czech foreign ministry informed that about five million crowns, or almost 250,000 U.S. dollars, have been released to help Greece.

The remains of Rudolf Firkusny, a Czech-born pianist who died in the United States in 1994, will be transported to the Czech Republic. One of the great concert pianists of the 20th century, Rudolf Firkusny left Czechoslovakia in 1939 and again in 1948 to escape the communist regime. He became known especially for his performances of Bohemian and Moravian composers Bedrich Smetana, Antonin Dvorak, Leos Janacek and Bohuslav Martinu. Mr Firkusny's remains will be interred on September 10 at the central cemetery in Brno.

Czech Social Democrat senators have said that they will be proposing a bill to reject the government's new financial reforms. The senators announced on Tuesday that they would be rejecting the reforms because they will not succeed in cutting public spending deficits and will also hurt pensioners' incomes.

The controversial financial reforms, which were narrowly passed by parliament last week, include the introduction of a flat tax and increased VAT for certain products. They also include changes to the country's health and social insurance systems.

The new reforms will be discussed by the senate next month. They are not expected to encounter any problems in the upper house, where the governing coalition has a clear majority.

The Czech police have accused five people of corruption involving Defence Ministry tenders, the daily Pravo writes. According to the paper's Tuesday edition one civil servant and four businesspeople have been accused of trying to influence who won various lucrative tenders, including cleaning and catering service contracts and orders for the renovation of army buildings. Pravo claims the charges are part of a large-scale investigation involving high-ranking ministry officials and half a billion Czech crowns or nearly 25 million US dollars.