News
Parliament postpones tax reform vote to next week
The lower house has voted to postpone deliberations on the controversial tax reform package to next week, despite disagreement from the opposition. The Civic Democrats requested the delay on Tuesday afternoon in order to have the crucial vote take place after their party convention, due to internal disagreements over the reform package. The discussion in the lower house was scheduled to begin on Wednesday. A group of Civic Democrat MPs met on Tuesday morning to discuss possible changes to the proposed legislation, but again made no headway. Six rebel MPs from the party supported the proposal to postpone Wednesday’s vote in order to have more time for discussion, but said the reform package would remain an issue of contention even after the party convention this weekend.
The opposition Social Democrats and the leadership of the Public Affairs party did not support the motion, saying that putting off the vote on any crucial legislation such as the tax package or the pension reform would only contribute to political instability.
Seven Czech fugitive criminals arrested in Dominican Republic
Police in the Dominican Republic, in cooperation with Czech investigators, arrested seven Czech fugitive criminals, suspected of money laundering and fraud. The seven arrived in the Czech Republic on Sunday. Four of the fugitives have already been sentenced in absentia, and were thus immediately taken to Czech prisons. Although the Dominican and the Czech Republics do not have a formal extradition agreement, Dominican officials were willing to arrest and deport the Czechs because some of them had committed felonies in the country. The Czech police were planning to assist in arresting at least ten more Czech citizens in the Dominican Republic who are suspected of sexual and violent crimes, including murder. So far, their efforts have been thwarted by the adverse weather conditions due to hurricane Sandy.
Former counter-intelligence chief under investigation
The police have begun an investigation into Karel Randák, the former head of Czech counter-intelligence and a member of the board of trustees of the Anticorruption Endowment, on charges that he leaked privileged information. Randák along with one other person from the Office of the Government are being accused of leaking information related to the salary bonus of Jana Nagyová, the managing director of Prime Minister Petr Nečas’s cabinet. The information that Ms Nagyová received approximately 190 thousand crowns in March, with a basic salary of 30 thousand crowns a month, became public earlier this year. Mr Randák said that this investigation has been initiated as a threat to his bid in this winter’s presidential election.
Railway Administration gets a fine for faulty tender proceedings
The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS )issued a 900-thousand-crown fine to the national Railway Infrastructure Administration for breaking free-competition rules in a 237-million-crown tender to modernize a part of a railway line. The ÚOHS claims the railway administration disqualified the bid by the construction giant Skanska without proper cause, even though the price offered was at least a fourth lower than the final price of the project.
Methanol laced alcohol found in Domažlice
The police in the south-western Domažlice region uncovered at least 20 liters of methanol-laced alcohol. All of the alcohol most likely came from a single local supplier who bought canisters of illegally produced liquor in east Moravia in the spring and summer. The police were first alerted when one of the samples that was brought by the public last week to the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň tested for high levels of methanol. The trail of illegally sold alcohol led them to Domažlice, where the police discovered laced rum, vodka and other hard liquor. So far, no one in the Domažlice region was arrested in connection to the methanol scandal. In the whole country, 30 people have died since September, as a result of methanol poisoning.
European Commission renews funding for transport and environment
The European Commission have renewed payments to the Czech Republic for the Environment and Transportation programs, having paid out 43 billion crowns to the Finance Ministry for past projects this week. The commission suspended payments for the Environment program in June and for the Transportation program in August 2011. Financing for a number of other programs was also suspended, because of the Commission’s misgivings about the way the Czech ministries administered the funds. Although financing for some programs was renewed in the summer, funds for these particular programs were paid out only now.
Kvitová is still set to lead Czech women in Fed Cup Final
The coach of the Czech Fed Cup women’s tennis team, Petr Pála, said on Tuesday that he is not planning yet on replacing Petra Kvitová in this weekend’s Fed Cup final in Prague. The leading Czech female tennis player left the WTA finals in Istanbul last week early, because of illness and has been trying to recover ever since. Kvitová played an exhibition match against Maria Sharapova in Prague on Monday, but was not in great shape. The 22-year-old will take an endurance test on Thursday, which will determine whether she will lead her teammates against Serbia.
Czech missing in the Alps still not found
A 65-year-old Czech man who went missing in the Austrian Alps over the weekend does not have very good odds of surviving, according to an Austrian internet news server. The man’s son alerted the authorities on Saturday after he did not receive a phone call from his father who was hiking in the mountains. Adverse weather conditions with temperatures dipping as low as -10 degrees Celsius in the area will make it difficult for the hiker to survive. A 50-member search and rescue team was prevented from continuing their search on Tuesday because of bad weather.
Prague to submit a bit for UNESCO’s cities of literature network
The Prague City Council approved the Czech capital’s bid to become a member of UNESCO’s Creative City of Literature, the City Hall announced on Tuesday. The bid is being coordinated by the Municipal Library of Prague and has been official supported by the world famous writer Umberto Eco. Currently, the network of cities of literature, which was established in 2004, has five members, including Edinburgh, Dublin and Melbourne. In addition to the municipal library, 33 literary, cultural and tourism organizations contributed to the preparations for the bid.
22 vehicles involved in accident in Ostrava
Twenty-two vehicles were involved in a pile-up in Rudná street in the Vitkovice district of the north Moravian city of Ostrava in the early hours of Tuesday. Three people were injured, two of them were airlifted to hospital. A bus and two trucks were involved in the pile-up.
Weather
Tuesday will be cloudy with possible snow and rainshowers in parts of the country, though skies should clear up by Wednesday morning. High temperatures will be between 2 and 7 degrees Celsius.
