Monday News Briefing

General News  

RADIOACTIVE Nuclear power plant Temelín produced 169 cubic meters of liquid radioactive waste last year, less than in 2010, and 86 cubic meters were moved to a nuclear waste repository in the Dukovany nuclear power plant, according to an annual report by the State Authority for Nuclear Safety (SUJB). A year earlier, 180 cubic meters of nuclear waste were transferred to the Dukovany site in southern Moravia. The rest is stored in Temelín's own spent nuclear fuel repository, which housed 76 used fuel cells as of last year. The repository was in trial operation since September 2010 and has since gained authorization for normal operations.  

BELARUS Germany's Interior Ministry provided training and equipment, including police batons, of the security forces of Belarus' authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko, the German daily Bild reported Aug. 27. Ministry representatives refuted the allegations, but admitted to providing Lukashenko's security forces with digital cameras, computers and audio recorders worth some 41,200 euros. Payment for this equipment was allegedly received by the German Embassy in Minsk. Another German daily, Der Tagesspiegel, previously reported German police trained at least 100 Belarusian security and border police between 2008 and 2011, including through a local demonstration in which tear gas and water canons were deployed. Belarus has been under European Union sanctions since 2011, following Lukashenka's controversial re-election which ended in a brutal repression of the opposition.  

OSTRAVA The owner of an Ostrava tenement housing more than 100 Roma has appealed against a city decision to demolish the property, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported Aug. 27. The city had previously declared the hygienic conditions in the derelict building hazardous to the tenants' health and ordered them to leave the premises, offering alternate temporary accommodation in boarding houses. The tenants, some of whom reside in the building illegally, have refused to leave. The owner, Oldřich Roztočil, claims the building is salvageable, and he refuses to raze it despite zoning office claims it is in danger of collapsing.  

Business

PROFIT Agrofert Holding, the parent company of Andrej Babiš' agricultural, food and chemical businesses, posted net profits of 3.9 billion Kč in 2011, the company said in its annual report published Aug. 26. That was up 50 percent on the year before, with the rise coming mainly thanks to dividends which the parent company received from its subsidiaries. Turnover grew 3.2 billion Kč (23 percent) year on year to nearly 17 billion Kč, which Babiš said was down to a higher volume of contracts and an increase in the price of agricultural commodities. Agrofert Holding comprises 202 subsidiaries, including the meat processing company Procházka Holding and chemicals producer Precolor. Babiš is among the Czech Republic's wealthiest businesspeople, boasting a net worth of $1.4 billion. He is ranked No. 913 on the Forbes list of billionaires. 

COMPLAINT Jan Petrásek, the Brno state prosecutor overseeing the military corruption case of Tatra CEO Ronald Adams, says he will make a decision on Adams' complaint against prodeedings by the end of the week, ČTK reported Aug. 27. Petrásek told ČTK he was yet to receive official documentation of the complaint, but had read about it in the media. The prosecutor also said he would not delay giving his verdict. U.S. national Adams was detained by police in Brno Aug. 20 for allegedly offering a bribe to former Defense Minister Martin Barták in 2009, a charge he denies. Tatra has called the affair "highly suspicious," since Barták is also accused of corruption relating to the same case. Adams filed his complaint Aug. 24, saying the police action was "not legally founded."  

ELECTRIC Czech consumers could pay up to 44 billion Kč toward renewable energy next year, according to Jiří Šťastný, the chairman of electricity market operator OTE. Šťastný told daily Hospodářské noviny the current amount was 36 billion Kč. Meanwhile, Industry and Trade Ministry spokesman Ondřej Jakob said he expects state subsidies to fall from 11.7 billion Kč this year to 9.7 billion Kč in 2013. That could translate into a 3.5 percent annual rise in the price of electricity for households, while companies would be hit even harder.  

News Desk can be reached at
news@praguepost.com