Wednesday News Briefing

NEWS  

TERRORISM The police's Organized Crime Unit (ÚOOZ) has charged four people for supporting terrorism in Russia's ethnically tense region of Dagestan, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported Feb. 15. The suspects, three Russian citizens and one Moldovan, are accused of forging documents for terrorists in Dagestan. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.  

CONFLICT Almost a quarter of MPs failed to fully disclose their property and business involvement in their public statements and have conflicts of interest, a nongovernmental organization found Feb. 14, according to ČTK. The NGO Enlivenment cross-checked the statements each senator and deputy fills out independently upon taking office. The statements are governed by an honor system, and their verification is not required by law.  

WELFARE Labor and Social Affairs Minister Jaromír Drábek said he would consider resigning if welfare and unemployment payments are not disbursed on schedule, daily Právo reported Feb. 15. Drábek has come under fire from labor office workers and the opposition, who claim a newly implemented electronic payment system is malfunctioning, thus delaying disbursements.  

BUSINESS  

STOCKS The Prague Stock Exchange (BCPP) partly corrected Monday's gains Feb. 15  as did most of  the other European markets, reacting to the downgrading of rating of several EU economies by agency Moody's. The PX index dropped 0.56 percent to 1,004.7 points, according to the bourse results. The lower ratings had a negative impact mainly on bank stocks. The fall was caused in particular by Erste Bank, which sank 3.09 percent to 460.30 Kč. Technology company KIT digital and media group CME were also among the biggest losers. KITD tumbled 4.72 percent to 212.10 Kč and CME fell 3.21 percent to 165.02 Kč.  

CONSTRUCTION Building company Skanska saw net profits crash 93 percent on the year to 67 million Kč in the Czech Republic and Slovakia last year, and sales decreased 19 percent to 19.5 billion Kč, the company announced in a press release Feb. 14. Problems with projects from the previous years and the crisis in the construction sector are behind the company's bad performance last year, Skanska representatives said.  

BANKS Net profit of Komerční banka (KB) fell more than a quarter to between 9.5 billion and 9.8 billion Kč, according to estimates of analysts polled by ČTK. The analysts anticipate a further write-off of Greek bonds held by KB. KB is to disclose its 2011 results Feb. 16. "In terms of the achieved full-year net profit, 2011 was probably the worst of the past five years for KB. The write-off of Greek state bonds, which we estimate to reach 5.4 billion Kč in total, affected the result significantly," analyst Marek Hatlapatka of Cyrrus said.  

WEATHER

Prague, Czech Republic; snow; High: 2 C, Low: -3 C  

News Desk can be reached at
news@praguepost.com