News

Czech Olympic champion Roman Sebrle has missed out on a gold medal in the decathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki. Sebrle finished second behind his biggest rival, Bryan Clay of the USA, after some poor results on the second day of the competition. Fellow Czech and three-time world champion Tomas Dvorak finished in eighth place. Roman Sebrle's silver in the decathlon is the Czech Republic's first medal from Helsinki.

An Interior Ministry inspection team has started interrogating the police officers who were recorded beating and kicking young people at the CzechTek music festival at the end of July. All four officers who are suspected of having broken regulations have been suspended, pending the outcome of the investigation which is expected to take several weeks. A parallel investigation is being conducted by the Ombudsman's Office. The government has been severely criticised for its handling of the open air techno party. Over a hundred people were injured on both sides after riot police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse a crowd of around 5,000 participants, on the grounds that they were trespassing on private property.

One fourth of Czechs, mainly women, say they have encountered sexual harassment at the work place. According to the results of a poll conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences, thirteen percent said they had experienced it personally, fifteen percent said they had seen it going on or had heard colleagues complain about it. Although sexual harassment was qualified as a crime by an amendment to the labor code in 2004, few cases get to court. The poll indicates that the victims of harassment usually resolve the problem by seeking a job elsewhere.

Czech discus thrower Vera Cechlova-Pospisilova will have to wait until at least Thursday before going for gold at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki. Cechlova-Pospisilova was leading the field on Tuesday evening when the event had to be abandoned due to heavy rains.