• Another Czech victim of tsunami disaster confirmed
    03/16/2005

    The body of one more Czech victim of the Indian Ocean disaster has been identified in Thailand. This brings the number of confirmed Czech victims to four. Three more Czechs are missing in Thailand and one in Sri Lanka but it is believed that none of them are alive.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Government sets strategy for euro constitution campaign
    03/16/2005

    The Czech cabinet has reached a decision on a strategy for increasing public awareness on the EU constitution prior to a possible referendum. The campaign will be headed by the prime minister's office, though the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had expressed an interest. It is estimated that the campaign, which would begin this year and last into 2006, will cost almost 10 million US dollars. The campaign will be run mostly through the media, but it is unclear whether it will be strictly informative or in open support of the constitution treaty.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Poll: Social Democrats' popularity continues to fall
    03/16/2005

    A poll released by the STEM agency has shown that voter preferences for the ruling Social Democratic Party have continued to fall. The poll suggests the party would place 3rd if elections were held today, garnering a little over 13 percent of the vote, behind the Communist Party at 2nd, with 18 percent, and the opposition Civic Democrats at 1st, with around 35 percent of the vote.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • A quarter of all healthcare funds - around 2.3 billion U.S. - spent on medication
    03/16/2005

    The Association for Health Care Insurance Consumers has released figures showing the country's health services spent more than one quarter of their funds on patients' medication last year. According to the association, expenses for medication have risen six-fold since 1992, with consumption rising two-fold. Last year some 52 billion crowns - around 2.3 billion U.S., from expenses of around 200 billion crowns, were spent on medication.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Irish firm buys Kotva, one of Prague's original dept. stores
    03/16/2005

    An Irish investment and development company, Markland, has bought Kotva - the popular Prague department store built under Communism in 1975. Markland is estimated to have paid more than 67 million US dollars for the store, located in central Prague. Company representatives told journalists on Wednesday that they were confident they could raise consumer interest to pre-1989 levels, when Kotva was Czechoslovakia's most visited shopping centre.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Valenta injured, out of World Cup race in Finland
    03/16/2005

    Freestyle aerials skier Ales Valenta has renewed a back injury while training ahead of a World Championship race in Finland. The gold medal winner from Salt Lake City 2002 was in pain and hospitalised at a facility near the town of Kuusam.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • Christian Democrats to leave coalition if Gross remains Prime Minister
    03/15/2005

    The Christian Democrats will leave the coalition government if Stanislav Gross remains Prime Minister after his party, the Social Democrats, hold their conference at the end of the month, the Pravo newspaper reported on Wednesday. Prime Minister Gross has been at the centre of a government crisis after he failed to explain how he paid for his luxury flat in Prague. After exerting pressure on him to resign from office, the Christian Democrats agreed to give the strongest party in government more time to resolve the matter in its own way.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Vodafone confirms Oskar Mobil takeover
    03/15/2005

    The British mobile phone company, Vodafone Group, has confirmed that it will buy the majority stake of the Canadian company Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) in Oskar Mobil, the smallest of the three Czech cell phone operators. Vodafone, which will also buy TIW's shareholdings in Romania's MobiFon, will pay 3.5 billion US dollars for both operators. The purchase in Oskar, which has an estimated 17 percent share of the Czech market, will cost the British company around one billion dollars.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • President signs appointment of 21 new judges
    03/14/2005

    President Vaclav Klaus has signed a decision on the appointment of twenty one new judges, all of whom are over thirty or will turn thirty this year, and sent it to Prime Minister Stanislav Gross for counter signature. The President last week refused to appoint 32 trainee judges who had not yet reached the age of thirty on the grounds that they were too young for such a responsible post. His decision evoked strong criticism since the Czech Republic is suffering from a lack of judges and has lost several court cases in Strasbourg over protracted proceedings.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • PM preparing an eight-point plan of government priorities
    03/13/2005

    Prime Minister Stanislav Gross is preparing an eight point plan which will outline the government's priorities in the remaining 15 months in office. In a debate on Czech TV, Mr. Gross said the crisis of the past few weeks had drawn attention away from matters which were vitally important and that he wanted to reaffirm his commitment to them. The government's priorities include a reform of the health and pension systems, the ratification of the European Constitution, preparations for the adoption of the euro in several years' time, and fighting unemployment. The opposition Civic Democrats have slammed the idea as a populist attempt to draw attention away from the fact that the government crisis had not been properly resolved.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

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