Wednesday News Briefing

NEWS  

IRAQ The recent detention of two Czech police officers at the Baghdad airport will not affect relations between Iraq and the Czech Republic, Iraqi Deputy PM Hussain Shahristani said at a lunch with Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg Jan. 25, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. Two members of the Czech police's elite rapid reaction unit, who served as security guards at the Czech embassy in Baghdad, were detained at the airport Jan. 7 while returning home after months of service. Airport officers disliked the two Czechs wearing bulletproof jackets, gas masks and magazines for ammunition.  

ART A total of 44 paintings by renowned Czech painter František Kupka will be returned to the Czech Republic on Defense Minister Alexander Vondra's upcoming return flight from his official visit to Washington, D.C., ČTK reported Jan. 25. The paintings were purchased from a historical collection in the United States by art collector Meda Mládková, who will include the paintings in the current Kupka collection at the Kampa Museum.  

CAGE BED A patient at an asylum for the mentally ill has hung herself in a cage bed, daily Právo reported Jan. 25. The use of net and cage beds became the focus of public attention in 2004 when J. K. Rowling, British author of the Harry Potter series, wrote to the Czech president and prime minister, asking them to stop using cage beds in health care facilities.  

BUSINESS  

EU FUNDS The Czech Republic is in danger of having to return 15.6 billion Kč to the European Union because of faults in the use of European subsidies for transport projects, according to results of a European Accounting Court control, daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) reported. Czech receivers of subsidies from European funds drew 103.4 billion Kč last year, compared with 100.4 billion Kč in 2010, the Local Development Ministry said.

JOB MARKET The financial crisis has hindered job mobility for managers, according to a study done by Soliditet. A survey of 1,600 large Czech companies found that 22 percent of managers changed jobs in 2010-2011 compared to 33 percent in 2009-2010. In terms of fields, the biggest turnover in management jobs last year was seen in marketing and human resources, while investment and IT had the highest manager retention.

JOINT VENTURE Property developer Orco will sign a contract with Unibail-Rodamco by the end of this quarter to create a joint venture for developing Orcos Bubny mixed-use project in Prague, HN reported. The French developer Orco, which has experienced financial difficulties in the last few years, will maintain a 40 percent stake in the development and construction is now set to begin in 2015.

WEATHER

Prague, Czech Republic; Partly Sunny; High: 1 C, Low: -6 C  

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