• 06/20/2004

    In related news, the Czech Republic football coach Karel Bruckner has been offered free beer for the rest of his life if his team wins Euro 2004. The Bernard brewery is offering him 60 litres of beer per year - the equivalent amount an average Czech drinks annually -- as an incentive to bring the football trophy home. Each player on the Czech squaw will receive 160 litres of beer for one year if they win the final.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/20/2004

    Prague is hot on the heels of Paris as the top weekend-break destination for Britons. Eleven percent of Britons are set to head for Paris over the coming months, according to a new survey by Morgan Stanley Credit Card, the British press association reports that the French capital narrowly clung onto its position as Britons' preferred city break destination. It is closely followed by Prague, where 10 percent of the 2,000 people interviewed said they intended to go in the next three months. Architecture, palaces and cheap beer were cited as some of the top attractions that entice visitors to the Czech Republic's capital city. Prague was the only Eastern European city to make the survey's Top Ten.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/19/2004

    European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday night agreed on the draft text of a new European Constitution. Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said they were pleased with the final draft, while the main opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) have criticised it saying the voting system spelt out in the text weakens the position of small states like the Czech Republic. Under the new voting scheme spelt out in the draft European Constitution, in order to take decisions, at least 15 of the 25 EU member states, or 60 percent, representing at least 65 percent of the EU population, will have to be in agreement. It will take at least four member states to block a decision.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/19/2004

    Meanwhile, the Social Democrat leadership is expected to bring forward the date of the party's central committee meeting to next weekend, when Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla will likely face a no-confidence motion as party leader. The meeting had been scheduled for the 11th of July. Mr Spidla is expected to lose the party chairmanship and may also be pressured to resign as prime minister. The Social Democrat party was routed in the European Parliament elections last weekend, placing fifth overall and popular support of his coalition government has plummeted in recent months.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/19/2004

    The right-of-centre Freedom Union and Christian Democrat parties have said they will stay in the coalition government led by the centre-left Social Democrats. The Freedom Union has said, however, that it wants the coalition to set out a clearly defined programme for the next two years, while the Christian Democrat have categorically ruled out cooperating with the Communist party.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/19/2004

    The Czech Republic's nuclear power station at Temelin went back on line on Friday after a two week shutdown, power plant officials said. One of the plant's reactors had to be taken off line on the 6th of June due to a fault in an electricity transformer, which caused three cubic metres of radioactive water to leak out of the primary circuit of the second unit. The Czech nuclear safety authority described the leak as a "minor" incident and Temelin officials have protested the subsequent surprise visit of an inspection team dispatched by the European Commission.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/19/2004

    The Czechs were to face the Dutch on Saturday evening in both teams' second match of the Group D round of Euro 2004, the football championship now underway in Portugal. The Czech squad is thought to have the psychological advantage going in, having beaten the Netherlands 3-1 in Prague and drawn 1-1 in Amsterdam en route to topping the group and forcing the Dutch into a playoff against Scotland.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 06/18/2004

    The Social Democrat leadership is due to meet on Saturday to discuss Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla's tenure as party chairman just a week after his government was routed in the European Parliament elections. Many of Mr Spidla's own party officials are openly urging him to step down, and say the longer he hangs on, the greater the chances are the party will force him to quit — and ultimately push him out as prime minister as well. If Mr Spidla does not quit as chairman, he will face a vote of confidence in the Central Executive Committee, the highest party organ between congresses. Prime Minister Spidla called the session for July 11. He also faces the threat of the smallest coalition party, the Freedom Union, quitting after poor election showing last week, and a no-confidence vote planned by the main opposition Civic Democrats.

  • 06/18/2004

    A poll conducted by the STEM agency suggests that if Czech parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, the right-of-centre opposition Civic Democrats would win 32 percent of the vote, followed by the Communists with 17 percent, and the senior Coalition Social Democrats with 14 percent of the vote. The fourth party that would make it to the lower house would be the junior coalition Christian Democrats with 8-percent support.

  • 06/18/2004

    The former Czech President, Vaclav Havel, has said that the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea should jointly confront the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to compel him to respect basic human rights. Calling Kim Jong Il the "world's worst totalitarian dictator" for being "responsible for the loss of millions of lives," Mr Havel cited accounts of repression by North Korean refugees that had been verified by modern satellite images. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post newspaper, Mr Havel urged the four democratic powers to take a common position and make it clear to Kim Jong Il that "respect for basic human rights is an integral part of any future discussions with Pyongyang". Last week, the Czech Republic reopened its embassy to North Korea. The Czechoslovak embassy to Pyongyang was closed in the early 1990s.

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