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August 30th, 2008
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July 4th, 2007 | Current Issue

Seeing red
Officials attempt damage control as tiff over Soviet war memorial leaves Russia seething

Ruzyně named as terror target
Business as usual for Prague Airport despite alleged threat

Police raids prepare for Schengen
Illegal immigrants targeted in nationwide crackdown

Poor fruit harvest will take its toll
Ravages of season prompt growers to seek protection

Stars descend on Karlovy Vary
International film fest struts its stuff in style

Snaps show cities from a rare perspective
Skateboarder's condition inspires travel photos in new permanent exhibition

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BRIEFS


MOLOTOV A Molotov cocktail was thrown through an open door of a Romany, or Gypsy, home in north Moravia June 30 while five people were inside, the Czech News Agency reported. It exploded in a hallway while the family was watching TV in another room. No one was injured. Police do not know who committed the crime.

GIFT The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has decided to keep the 6 million Kč ($281,162) gift it received from Miroslav Sova and his grandmother, Františka Řezníčková, Hospodářské noviny reported July 2. ODS Chief Manager Jaroslav Jurečka said he found no evidence of impropriety in the gift and that the donors had given the gift out of fear of a left-wing victory.
KREJČÍŘ A South African court is considering releasing wanted Czech businessman Radovan Krejčíř on bail but monitoring him with an electronic anklet, news server iDnes.cz reported July 3. The court has delayed a verdict several times on requests for Krejčíř’s extradition. Czech prosecutors have been seeking his extradition since 2005. He was arrested in Johannesburg April 21 after nearly two years of living in the Seychelles.
STB Former Foreign Affairs Minister Jaroslav Šedivý admitted to working with the communist secret police (StB) but said he had no choice, according to a July 2 Lidové noviny report. Šedivý, who served as minister in 1997–98, worked as an interpreter for Soviet aides in 1953–54.
BALKANS The last unit of Czech peacekeeping soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina returned home July 1, ČTK reported. Only four Czech officers remain stationed at EU peacekeeping headquarters in Sarajevo. A total of 6,750 Czech soldiers have served in NATO and EU missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1996, ČTK reported.
CONFLICT Deputy Regional Development Minister Daniel Toušek is suspected of having a conflict of interest, news server Aktualne.cz reported July 2. Tousek is in charge of money from European Union funds while he is also the majority shareholder of a firm advising clients on how to get EU subsidies. Toušek’s supervisor, Regional Development Minister Jiří Čunek, denies the charge.

BIRD FLU Workers completed the culling June 28 of 28,000 chickens at an east Bohemian farm where the H5N1 strain of bird flu had been discovered, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. The farm is four kilometers (2.5 miles) away from another poultry farm where H5N1 was discovered June 20. Regional authorities said local inhabitants don’t face any health threat.

DISCRIMINATION The Czech Republic received a warning letter June 27 from the European Commission for failing to pass a required anti-discrimination law, ČTK reported. The same warning was sent to 14 other EU states. A draft anti-discrimination bill, which would criminalize discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity, is currently before Parliament.
ACCIDENTS The number of road fatalities has increased over 2006 despite the introduction of stringent traffic laws last summer, daily Lidové noviny reported July 2. Since January, 485 people have died in accidents on national roads, 52 more than last year, the paper reported. Over the first weekend of the summer holidays, June 30–July 1, five people died in road accidents.
HEALTH The number of Czechs treated abroad has risen 24-fold since EU entry in 2004, according to a July 2 Právo report. Last year 27,619 Czechs received health care abroad, mostly in Europe, and Czech insurers paid 161 million Kč for the treatments. The number of foreigners who seek treatment in this country is also increasing.
TAX Part of the Civic Democratic Party’s public finance reform plan calls for the president to be subject to income taxes. Currently, the president’s post is the only one exempt from taxes. President Václav Klaus earns 395,200 Kč ($18,519) per month, tax-free. If the proposal passes, Klaus’s after-tax salary would be 320,100 Kč.
COAL Most Czechs oppose lessening the 1991 restrictions on coal mining in north Bohemia, according to a poll published in Mladá fronta Dnes July 2. Inhabitants of the area support the limits while coal company Mostecká uhelná wants them lifted, saying that 8,000 miners could lose their jobs over the next decade.
BLACKMAIL A group of six men has been charged with racketeering in the Karlovy Vary and Sokolov areas of west Bohemia, organized crime squad spokeswoman Blanka Kosinová told ČTK July 1. The men were “notorious thugs” who used “constant psychological and physical coercion” to blackmail local businessmen, Kosinová said. The number of arrests could still rise, she said.
DRUGS Customs officers in west Bohemia have arrested four men accused of attempting to smuggle 2,000 Ecstasy tablets into the country, a customs spokesman told ČTK July 3. The drug shipment, worth a street value of 400,000 Kč, was driven from the Netherlands by truck but was seized by Plzeň customs officers, ČTK said.
CRASH One woman is dead and her flight instructor injured after a Czech Blaník glider plane crashed in a mountainous area of north Moravia June 30, ČTK reported. A police spokeswoman said the man was being treated in hospital.
HOME An increasing number of Czechs live with their parents well into adulthood, according to the July 2 issue of weekly Respekt. Among those 18 to 24, 82 percent live at home, and nearly half of those between 25 and 29 do. Sociologists say the change is the result of political changes since 1989 that have changed housing policies for young couples with children.

UK Police detained a total of eight suspects, several believed to be doctors, after two unexploded car bombs were discovered in central London June 29 and a vehicle in flames rammed into the Glasgow airport June 30. Police are investigating the possibility that the incidents were connected to an al Qaeda terrorist plot, Reuters reported. The eighth suspect was detained in Australia.

PORTUGAL Portugal took over the European Union presidency July 2. Prime Minister Jose Socrates launched the six-month term, which it takes over from Germany, in the town of Porto. Portugal’s presidential priorities are economic reform, the EU treaty and defining Europe’s place in the world, according to the BBC.
UK A smoking ban that came into effect July 1 in England bans lighting up in all public buildings, including pubs, clubs, restaurants and shopping malls. Breaking the ban carries a fine of £50 ($101/2,130 Kč). Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have bans in effect.
UK A Scottish judicial review board ruled June 28 that a man might have been wrongly convicted of participation in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The 800-page report concluded that “a miscarriage of justice may have occurred” in the case of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer. Al-Megrahi is now appealing the verdict.
GERMANY Travelers across Germany faced delays after rail workers staged early morning warning strikes July 2, German daily Der Spiegel reported. The strikes came after labor talks broke down. The two rail workers’ unions are calling for a salary raise of 7 percent, while Deutsche Bahn has offered two raises of 2 percent each.  
GREECE Massive wildfires on the outskirts of Athens claimed two lives by June 28 and emitted a thick black cloud over the city. The fires began June 27 and by the next day had engulfed thousands of acres across the country. Police declared at least one fire the result of arson.
BOSNIA Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajčák took over as the peace overseer for Bosnia July 2. Lajčák has said his goal will be to get Bosnia to comply with reforms demanded by the West. He is the sixth holder of the post since the end of the Bosnian war and will serve for one year.
SPAIN Two people charged with trying to extort the parents of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann appeared in Spanish court June 30, police told the BBC. Italian Danilo Chemello, 61, and Aurora Pereira Vaz, 54, from Portugal, are believed to have been attempting to extort the McCann family by promising information on her whereabouts. Madeleine was kidnapped May 3 from a Portugal hotel room.
CYPRUS A U.S. diplomat who had been missing since June 28 was found dead July 2 in the hills outside of Nicosia. Lt. Col. Thomas K. Mooney, 45, worked as a defense attaché in the Nicosia-based embassy. He was last seen leaving in his car in the afternoon of June 28 and the car was found near his body. The cause of death remains under investigation.
SERBIA About 600 ethnic Albanians demonstrated in Kosovo June 30, demanding a referendum to end the political deadlock regarding its demand for independence, according to Reuters. The crowd lobbed rolls of toilet paper at parliament and mocked political effigies. The protest ended peacefully.

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