• North Korea interested in Czech involvement in relieving tension on Korean Peninsula
    03/11/2004

    The Speaker of the North Korean Parliament Che Te-bok has met his Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek in Prague to discuss potential Czech involvement in relieving tension on the Korean Peninsula. According to Mr Zaoralek, North Korean politicians believe the Czech Republic could interpret the position the North Korean government would like to hold in international dialogue more accurately than other countries. The prime ministers of South Korea and Japan have approached the Czech Republic before to ask for Czech assistance in solving the tension between North and South Korea. The Czech Foreign Ministry has taken steps towards the re-opening of the Czech embassy to Pyongyang which was closed in the early 1990s.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • President vetoes amendment to national health law
    03/11/2004

    President Vaclav Klaus has vetoed an amendment to the law on national health. The amendment was to prolong the existence of national registers gathering data on the health state of the population. The bill was approved by the lower house of parliament in February including several changes suggested by the Senate. The lower house could override the presidential veto if all 101 coalition MPs vote in favour of the amendment.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech National Bank wants to keep inflation at 2-4 percent until euro adoption
    03/11/2004

    The Czech National Bank has said it wants inflation to remain between 2 and 4 percent from the beginning of 2006 until the adoption of the single European currency, the euro, expected at the end of the decade. The last inflation target set by the Czech National Bank in 2001 predicted a gradual fall in inflation from 3-to-5 percent in 2002 to 2- to-4 percent at the end of 2005. The Czech National Bank has been setting inflation targets since 1998.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech National Bank releases inflation goal
    03/11/2004

    The Czech Republic's central bank, the Czech National Bank, has said it would like inflation to range between 2.0 and 4.0 percent between the year 2006 and the expected introduction of the euro at the end of the decade. The last inflation goal in 2001 predicted a slight decrease in inflation from between 3.0 and 5.0 percent in 2002 to between 2.0 and 4.0 percent at the end of next year.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Two men charged with illegally importing large amount of explosives
    03/11/2004

    Two Czech men have been charged with illegally importing over three hundred tonnes of plastic explosives into the Czech Republic. The explosives came from the arsenal of a foreign army and had not been properly marked as plastic explosives, the police said on Wednesday. They refused to confirm reports the explosives originated in Sweden. If convicted the two suspects could face up to ten years in prison.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • New energy plan does not loosen restrictions on coal mining
    03/11/2004

    The government has approved a new state energy plan which - after some protests from the environmental lobby - does not allow for the loosening of restrictions on coal mining. The minister for the environment, Libor Amborzek, said the plan's emphasis on renewable energy and effective energy use showed the Czech Republic's energy policy was now moving in a more environmental direction. There had been fears that some communities would have been destroyed to make way for new mines.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Ex-minister Svoboda gets five years for fraud
    03/10/2004

    Former finance minister Ivo Svoboda has been sentenced to five years in prison for fraud while he was an executive at a pram-making company which subsequently collapsed. His co-defendant Barbora Snopkova was given a five-and-a-half-year sentence by the Central Bohemian Regional Court on Wednesday. Mr Svoboda served as finance minister from March 1997 to April 1999 in the minority Social Democrat government led by Milos Zeman.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Government approves bill to thoroughly reform education system
    03/10/2004

    After long and difficult negotiations the government on Wednesday approved a bill aimed at thoroughly reforming the Czech Republic's education system. Among other things, the bill envisages more importance being placed on the creative use of information by school pupils and less emphasis on rote-learning. Furthermore, the current "maturita" school-leaving exams would be replaced from 2008. The government bill is expected to raise some debate when it goes before Parliament.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Schools hold minute's silence for teacher stabbed to death in class
    03/10/2004

    Schools around the Czech Republic held a minute's silence on Wednesday in honour of teacher Bohuslav Sibl, who was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old pupil in the east Bohemian town of Svitavy last week. The classroom killing was the first of its kind in this country, and has provoked a widespread debate about young people and violence.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Klaus expresses support for Czech soldiers in Afghanistan
    03/09/2004

    President Vaclav Klaus has expressed his support for the mission to send Czech Special Forces troops to Afghanistan. The president made the statement on Tuesday after speaking with the commander of the Army's General Staff Pavel Stefka and Defence Minister Miroslav Kostelka. With regards to Afghanistan Mr Klaus said he had been given detailed plans on the mission including information on special tasks. The Afghanistan mission, already approved by Parliament, will see more than 100 elite soldiers from Czech Special Forces sent to the combat zone to help weed out remaining Taliban and Al Qaeda forces, as part of the U.S.-led operation 'Enduring Freedom'. At the same time a recent CVVM poll revealed that some 75 percent of Czechs disagreed with the soldiers being sent abroad.
    Author: Jan Velinger

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