Friday News Briefing

NEWS 

FOOTBALL The Czech Republic's Euro 2012 campaign is over after football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal in Portugal's 1-0 win in Warsaw. Portugal dominated the quarterfinal contest with Ronaldo popping up to head home the winner in the 79th minute. The Portuguese will now play the winner of the clash between defending champions Spain and France. 

POLL The approval rating of the Social Democrats has plunged 5.5 percent in the wake of the David Rath scandal, according to a CVVM poll published in the daily Právo June 22. The party's approval rating now sits at 31 percent, the Communist Party is still second despite falling one point to 20.5 percent, and the Civic Democrats have risen three points to 20 percent. TOP 09's approval is now at 10 percent, followed by the Christian Democrats with 7 percent and the Greens 4.5 at percent. 

APPEAL Former Transport Minister Vít Bárta (Public Affairs, VV) has appealed the suspended sentence he received for bribing fellow VV deputies into loyalty, the Czech News Agency reported June 21. Bárta also said he had lodged a criminal complaint against Kristýna Kočí, the former head of the VV's deputies' group who he accuses of fraud and perjury. "In the appeal, I and my defense counsel have challenged the court's conclusions concerning the loan [I extended to other VV MPs]," Bárta wrote in a statement on his website.  

BUSINESS 

BANK BONDS The Czech National Bank has granted permission to the deposit-insurance fund to issue bonds of up to 100 billion Kč, E15 reported June 22. The move will raise the fund's cushion to 124 billion Kč, but it has no immediate plans to issue bonds, a step that requires a state of emergency. If the fund is not able to raise the amount it needs on capital markets, the law allows it to seek a state subsidy or loan. 

OFFER Warburg Pincus sent out sales offers two weeks ago to potential buyers of Centrum Holdings, which operates Centrum.cz, Atlas.cz and Aktuálně.cz, Mladá fronta Dnes reported June 22. It is believed the owner wants about 2 billion Kč for its Czech, Slovak and Croatian Internet assets. The fund bought the Czech assets in 2007 for 100 million euros and spent many millions more to acquire Altas.cz. 

BEER Staropramen's "unfiltered beer" has been found to contain no live yeast, is pasteurized and achieves its cloudy consistency through the use of apple extract according to a test by VŠCHT. Gambrinus' unfiltered beer by contrast, is neither filtered nor pasteurized however the Staropramen product does not violate any legal norms.  

WEATHER 

Prague, Czech Republic; mostly sunny; High: 24 C, Low: 12 C

News Desk can be reached at
news@praguepost.com