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December 4th, 2008
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April 18th, 2007 | Current Issue

Overhaul
Old Town Square martyr gets much-needed bodywork

ČR may sell CO2 credits to six states
Swap could net country 16.7 billion Kč in an unprecedented deal

Cuban families gain asylum in ČR
Czechs foster anti-communist dissidence with their aid policy

Neolithic settlement found
But lack of funds and plans for construction quell hopes for exhibit of prehistoric site

Rare maps a surprising discovery
Just five known works of Catalan cartographer unearthed until now

New evidence in military corruption case
Altered drawing cards aid authorities in their investigation of tenders

International court for war crimes gets snubbed by Czechs
Failure to ratify is an 'embarrassment,' says human rights advocate

Wolves attack twice at zoo
New barriers to keep visitors away from pen after bizarre behavior

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BRIEFS


RADAR Two deputies were denied visas to visit the Marshall Islands in order to tour a U.S.-operated radar base, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported April 13. Communist Deputy Alexandr Černý and Christian Democrat Rostislav Slavotínek were denied because they applied only days before the April 14 departure, the U.S. Embassy said. Černý says he was rejected because the communists are opposed to a U.S. radar base here.

VISAS A bilateral visa-waiver program between the Czech Republic and the U.S. would be in violation of European Union policy, according to an EU diplomat who was quoted in Hospodářské noviny April 17. Ireland, Italy and Germany are urging U.S. lawmakers to reject a bill that would grant visa waivers to countries that tighten security.
BONDY Influential Czech writer Egon Bondy died in Bratislava April 9 at age 77. Bondy was part of an underground movement critical of the Soviet regime and influenced revolutionaries such as former President Václav Havel, who helped issue Charter 77 after police raided a concert by a band that used Bondy’s writings as lyrics.
CHURCH Cardinal Miloslav Vlk says the struggle between church and state over ownership of St. Vitus Cathedral is still unsettled, ČTK reported. The Supreme Court ruled in February that ownership must be handed back to the state April 16. On his personal Web site, Vlk says no agreement has been reached on management of the building.
TIBET Prague Mayor Pavel Bém criticized China’s foreign policy after he was denied entry to Tibet to scale Mt. Everest despite having the required visa and permit, his spokeswoman said April 14. Prague City Hall has participated in campaigns supporting Tibet’s independence from China. Bém will ascend the peak from Nepal instead.

RUSSIA Riot police cracked down on demonstrators April 14 in Moscow and the following day in St. Petersburg, arresting about 370 people among the hundreds who had turned out to protest President Vladimir Putin’s government. Human rights workers say 54 people were treated for police-induced injuries in one Moscow hospital. The rally, which was authorized, turned into an unauthorized march.

MACEDONIA United Nations prosecutors alleged April 16 that Macedonia’s former interior minister watched police kill seven Albanians during a rampage of the village Ljuboten in 2001. A video played during the war crimes trial, in The Hague, allegedly shows former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski watching the attacks from several hundred meters away.
TURKEY An estimated 300,000 people protested the country’s growing political Islamism at an Ankara rally April 14. The demonstrators rallied against the prospect of the head of parliament’s leading party, Justice and Development (AK), taking the presidency in upcoming elections. AK has been criticized for bringing religion into politics in the legally secular state.
UK Reports that a BBC reporter kidnapped in Gaza has been executed have not been confirmed, the BBC reported April 16. Alan Johnston, 44, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Gaza City March 12. A militant group claimed in an e-mail that it had executed him.
FRANCE The French foreign intelligence warned the U.S. CIA as early as January 2001 of al-Qaeda plans to hijack U.S. commercial airliners, daily Le Monde newspaper reported April 16. The newspaper reported it had obtained classified documents that described plans for hijackings, but did not specify the planes would be crashed into buildings.
UK The UK government has stopped using the phrase “war on terror” because it empowers terrorists by portraying them as a united enemy, British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn has said. The statements were pre-released excerpts from a speech Benn delivered April 16 in New York City.
ITALY The trial of a U.S. soldier being tried in absentia for killing an Italian intelligence officer in Iraq began in Rome April 16. Nicola Calipari was killed in March 2005 at a security checkpoint after helping free a kidnapped Italian journalist. The accused, Specialist Mario Lozano, says he first fired warning shots at the car but it didn’t stop.
GERMANY An army training video in which soldiers were told to picture black people in New York as they fired machine guns has sparked international outrage and a rebuke from the German Defense Ministry. In the video, an instructor tells officers to imagine that a black man in the Bronx has just insulted his mother. The officer shouts obscenities when firing the gun.
POLAND Parliament rejected bills designed to make the country’s abortion ban part of its constitution. The April 14 vote failed to reach a two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution. The current abortion law, considered one of Europe’s most restrictive, allows for abortion only in cases of rape, severe birth defects or to save the woman’s life.
RUSSIA The chief prosecutor in the trial of Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky asked UK authorities April 16 to strip the accused of his political asylum and extradite him back to Russia. Berezovsky faces charges in his native Russia for calling for a forcible change of political power in the Kremlin. He fled for the United Kingdom in 2000 to escape corruption allegations he claims were politically motivated.

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