GRIPEN

Anti-corruption officers have discovered new facts in their investigation into bribery allegations in the Czech Army’s lease of Gripen fighter jets from British and Swedish companies, a police spokeswoman said Feb. 26. Swedish media reports have said undercover journalists recorded statements by former Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Kavan admitting the Gripen deal was tainted by corruption and bribery. A 20 billion Kč ($930 million) lease, signed in 2004, secured 14 Gripens for the Czech Air Force.

Interior Minister Ivan Langer says the Czech police force will not suffer even though more than 1,000 officers have quit since early January, daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) reported Feb. 24. Critics say the force is dwindling due to a new law that reduces overtime pay and bonuses. Langer said the majority of departing officers have worked in the force for 29 years or more, and that recruitment campaigns are under way.

Petr Zelenka, the east Bohemian nurse accused of killing eight patients last year and attempting to murder nine more, could have started killing earlier than investigators previously thought, MfD reported Feb. 26. Investigators are looking into the 2005 death of a patient in the Havlíčkův Brod hospital where Zelenka worked. Zelenka reportedly confessed to the murders after his Dec. 1 arrest.

The Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ) has begun proceedings against daily Hospodářské noviny for publishing the debts of top politicians in its Feb. 26 issue. The financial data is accessible to the public, but individuals must first visit the office of the Chamber of Deputies for a password. However, publishing the information is illegal except in a few situations, a ÚOOÚ spokeswoman said. The four ministers whose debts were published have said they didn’t mind having that information made public.

UK

Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing criticism from his government after admitting Feb. 23 that he has been in talks with U.S. President George W. Bush over hosting parts of a proposed U.S. missile-defense shield on British soil. A spokeswoman for Blair said he has been lobbying for inclusion in the U.S. missile-defense system for some time.

The highest United Nations court cleared Serbia Feb. 26 of direct responsibility for genocide during the 1992–95 war stemming from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. However, the International Court of Justice at the Hague did rule that Serbia had broken international law by failing to prevent the 1995 massacre of Srebrenica, in which approximately 8,000 Muslim males were systematically killed. The case was the first time a state had been tried for genocide, though the UN war crimes tribunal has already found individuals guilty of the crime.

The head of the far-right National Front Party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, presented his political platform Feb. 25 for his sixth bid for the presidency. “France for the French,” the controversial politician told a crowd of supporters. He promised to halt immigration, lower taxes, boost military spending while pulling France out of NATO, restore the death penalty and halt integration within the European Union. The first round of voting in the presidential election is in late April.

The Polish environment minister rejected an EU directive Feb. 26 to halt plans for a highway that would pass through protected wetlands. The highway, which would link Warsaw to Helsinki, Finland, by passing through the Baltic states, would cut through peat lands that shelter rare plants and animals. Minister Jan Szyszko said Poland was prepared to go to court, a possibility threatened by EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

A radical Muslim cleric lost his fight Feb. 26 against a deportation order to Jordan. Abu Qatada is accused of being closely involved with the al-Qaida terrorism organization and has been convicted in absentia in Jordan on terrorist charges. The ruling, seen as a landmark victory for the UK Home Office, rested on a 2005 agreement between Jordan and the United Kingdom not to use torture. Human rights group Amnesty International has protested the ruling, saying Qatada could still face torture in Jordan.

There is no proof the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) set up secret prisons on Romanian territory or used Romanian airspace to secretly transport terrorism suspects across Europe, a parliamentary committee said Feb. 21 after a yearlong investigation. In a report for the Council of Europe last year, Swiss Senator Dick Marty said 20 countries, most of them European, had taken part in the CIA’s secret network of detention and transport centers.

The last unit of Slovak soldiers to pull out of Iraq flew home Feb. 25 on a flight from Kuwait with Defense Minister František Kašický, the Czech News Agency reported. The unit of about 100 soldiers, who worked on an engineering detail, left Iraq in January as part of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s pullout plan. Eleven officers remain in Iraq to train local law enforcement. The Slovak Army lost four soldiers since being deployed to Iraq in 2003.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi will face a vote of confidence in Parliament March 1 and March 2. Prodi resigned Feb. 21, after members of his coalition killed a Senate vote on the government’s foreign policy, but remained prime minister after President Giorgio Napolitano rejected his resignation Feb. 24.