Press Review
Quite a mixed bag of stories on today's front pages. MLADA FRONTA DNES leads with a planned campaign against aggressive drivers. The Transport Ministry is drafting an amendment to the traffic law which - it's hoped - will reduce the horrendous road death statistics in this country. If the bill becomes law, each driver who is caught breeching traffic rules will get a certain number of points depending on the gravity of the offence.
Three points for driving through a red light. Drinking and driving will earn the driver six points and refusing an alcohol breath test will be a seven-point offence, writes MLADA FRONTA DNES. Once the driver collects twelve points, he or she have their driver's licence confiscated. A Transport Ministry official tells MLADA FRONTA DNES that the bill might not make it through parliament as all MPs are drivers and every driver thinks he is a better expert than anyone else. The paper has some reservations about the traffic law amendment: while those serious traffic offences which often result in fatal accidents are assessed rather leniently, less serious infringements are more "costly" for the driver.
LIDOVE NOVINY's front page headline reads: Bush sends a hard-line conservative to Prague. The man in question is a new United States ambassador to Prague who is to replace Craig Stapleton in the post at the beginning of next year. A businessman from Alabama and a friend of President George W. Bush, William Cabannis is known as a staunch opponent of abortion and a supporter of the death penalty for drug dealers. The current US ambassador was appointed in August 2001 and LIDOVE NOVINY notes that his replacement after a mere 24 months is unusual. The paper adds that Mr Bush might need Craig Stapleton's assistance in his presidential campaign.
The economic daily HOSPODARSKE NOVINY reports that while approving next year's state budget, the government discovered another five billion crowns. Therefore it could give 2.8 billion towards building transport infrastructure and also give more to universities and scientific research but also decrease the state budget deficit by three billion. "We found the extra five billion after revising the proceeds from collected VAT. So that is 2.5 billion. And Russia promised to pay off its debt faster," Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka explained where the extra money actually came from.
PRAVO writes that the politicians of the ruling coalition are willing to do everything to make sure that Freedom Union MP Hana Marvanova, who has given birth to her third son this week, is present at the session of the lower house that will start next Tuesday. Her vote in the lower house, where the governing coalition has only a one-seat majority, is crucial for overturning the president's veto and the Senate's disapproval of the VAT and excise duty bills. The ruling coalition say they want to pamper Ms Marvanova. A room has been found in parliament where she'll be able to change or feed her baby.
And finally, on a gruesome note, MLADA FRONTA DNES reports that police suspect the homicidal couple, Dana and Jaroslav Stodola, who have been charged with eight counts of murder, of killing another man. Detectives are investigating a robbery and murder of a pensioner in Prague. Police are now looking into files on unsolved murders and suspicious suicides and other deaths, for possible links with the couple of serial killers.
