News
Industry Ministry considering cancelling health subsidy for miners
The Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering cancelling a long-running health subsidy for miners, the daily Právo reports. The subsidy entails 1,500 to 1,900 crowns in compensation per month paid by the employer to miners who leave their jobs for health reasons and has been in place since 1993. The cancellation of the subsidy would change nothing in the state’s budget but would mean savings of up to 50 million crowns for large coal mining companies. According to documents that the paper says it possesses, the ministry believes the subsidy reflects a time when miners faced worse conditions in their work environments and a greater risk of illness. The miners’ union, which is protesting the move, says that hardly anything has changed in that time and that the idea is needless provocation.
Children who never left their home found in central Prague
Police in Prague city centre have discovered two small children whose parents had never taken them outdoors, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reports. The children – a boy aged three and an 18-month-old girl – were apparently born at home, had never been taken to a doctor and were in good physical but poor psychological condition. The paper says that the parents were trying to protect the children from an “evil world” and had lost interest in them after they were touched by another person. They are now in the care of their grandparents after being taken to a children’s centre. Police will not say whether the parents will be prosecuted.
Nečas meets with Moldavian PM, confirms developmental aid for 2012
Prime Minister Petr Nečas says that Moldavia will be one of five priority countries for Czech developmental aid next year. Speaking to the press after a meeting with his Moldavian counterpart, Vlad Filat, Mr Nečas said that the small East European country was a priority for the Visegrad Group as a whole, on account of its reform efforts and pro-European stance. He also noted that Moldavia offers opportunities for Czech investment, particularly in the areas of energy and transportation infrastructure. The Czech Press Agency says that Moldavia is to receive 66.5 million crowns in developmental aid from the Czech Republic next year. Prior to the press conference, Czech and Moldavian officials signed bilateral agreements on the return of illegal aliens, cooperation in health care and social security.
New Prague coalition meeting cancels waste tender, agrees 2012 budget
The Prague City Council has scrapped a controversial, ten-year tender for waste management. Critics said the order was overpriced. Its value was estimated at 13.2 billion crowns, but the lowest bid was more than three billion higher. The planned tender was sharply criticised by TOP 09, then in opposition in City Hall. The Czech capital will have a budget of 44 billion crowns and will have an additional eight billion for investment. Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda has said that the city plans to cut all current expenditures by five percent. As of last Thursday, six members from the TOP 09 party have joined the council, replacing the Social Democrat representation from the grand coalition that was dissolved last week.
Barbora Škrlová granted early release from prison
A district court has freed Barbora Škrlová, who was sentenced to five years for her part in the “Kuřim” child abuse case. The 36-year-old woman was released two and a half years early after a fierce debate in court between the state prosecutor and her lawyer, who says her psychological condition has not improved in prison. The prosecution maintained that Ms Škrlová behaves like a sullen child but is actually a skilled manipulator. Her case began in 2007, when six individuals linked to a small religious sect were charged with violently abusing two children. Škrlová pretended to be one of the children and was taken into childcare from which she escaped. She was later found in Norway after her true identity was revealed. She will remain on probation for five years.
Czech Position: Lawyer Fagan to file lawsuit against the Czech Republic
The website Czech Position reports that controversial American lawyer Edward Fagan is filing a lawsuit against the Czech Republic, its finance minister and several other people regarding unpaid bonds issued by the town of Karlovy Vary in 1924. Mr Fagan says the suit, which is to be filed in the US, is based on his having been denied cooperation in verifying whether the state fulfilled its financial liabilities arising from the bonds. He is reportedly also threatening to prevent the state from issuing further bonds. The Finance Ministry rejected Mr Fagan’s 500-million-dollar claim for the bonds, which were sold in the United States. The Czech Finance Ministry says such claims have been barred for years and that Czechoslovak authorities negotiated a memorandum with the bond holders in 1984.
Public Affairs to lodge criminal complaint over IZIP
The junior coalition party, Public Affairs, will lodge a criminal complaint against General Health Insurance Company (VZP) board members who promoted a project for electronic health records called IZIP and were simultaneously its shareholders. The party also asked its representatives on the board of the state-run VZP, the country´s biggest health insurer, to propose the dismissal of VZP board chairman and director Pavel Horak. Party chairman Radek John said he will not yet specify who the complaint has been lodged against. Controversies that have accompanied IZIP project for the last decade have intensified in recent weeks, since VZP procured 51% of the company’s shares. The remaining 49% is in the possession of an unknown Swiss company to which the project´s founders transferred their shares earlier this year.
Statistical office reports on internet use
Internet access in households has increased by 77% over the last five years, the Czech Statistical Office reports. The office records 2.5 million connected households in the country (3 out of 5), and 2.7 million households with computers. The large increase may be due to the popularity of wireless connections. More than a fourth of the population over the age of 16, or 2.5 million people, use teh internets for shopping. The most common online activities were reported to be searching for information on goods and services, reading messages and internet calling. About a quarter of the adult population said they actively use social networks.
Agreement reached with land-owner for completion of D11 motorway
Completion of the D11 motorway from Prague to Hradec Králové looks set to go ahead, as the farmer whose land obstructed the work has agreed to sell it to the state for 90 million crowns. She will also be compensated with other tracts of land. Negotiations for the purchase of the ten hectares in question have been underway for 17 years. Archaeological and geological is set to begin next year and the motorway will be built between 2013 and 2014 at a cost of 1.5 billion crowns.
Driest November on record
The current month is set to become the driest November since meteorological records began in 1775. The amount of precipitation was virtually unmeasurable, with the last proper rain having fallen on October 26. The Czech Meteorological Institute says that the average daily precipitation of half a millimetre was not recorded anywhere in the country in the last month. The dry spell is reportedly not causing problems for farming at the moment. Rainfall is expected at the weekend at the earliest.
Weather
Conditions over the coming days are expected to be clear, with highs of around 6° Celsius.
