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July 18th, 2007 | Current Issue

Building blocks
UNESCO condemns plans for Prague high-rises

Russia backs out of arms treaty
Putin's 'blackmail' plan tied to radar base, according to analyst

Country may get new int'l airport
Facility near Prague would target low-cost carriers

Orthodox church fills gap
Romanian patriarch's visit draws community eager to welcome new space for worship

Response in bio-attack drills draws praise
Czechs lead NATO in chemical capability but more work to be done

Feeding soldiers' love of loaves
Portable oven development on a roll but Defense Ministry unlikely to bite

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BRIEFS


BIRD FLU Firefighters finished culling more than 100,000 hens in east Bohemia July 14 after bird-flu virus H5N1 was found on several farms, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. The farms will be disinfected then quarantined for 30 days. Bird flu in domestic Czech flocks emerged first at a poultry farm in Tisová June 20. The government is asking the European Commission to help with cleanup costs.

BUSH Security for the June visit of U.S. President George Bush cost Czech police and military nearly 30 million Kč ($1.5 million), making the two-day stop the most expensive presidential visit in Czech history, according to a July 15 Czech Television broadcast. Two-thirds of that cost was spent on four military planes that guarded Prague’s air space.
VANDALS Unknown vandals destroyed or toppled 25 gravestones at the newly reconstructed cemetery of Czech Jews in Bohumín, north Moravia, ČTK reported July 16. The town hall is considering installing a CCTV camera and may increase police patrols. Damage to the site is estimated at 30,000 Kč.
CRASH One train driver died and another was seriously injured July 14 when two trains collided at Čerčany railway station, the Associated Press reported. Several passengers were lightly injured. The cause of the accident is still unknown.
POLL A Eurobarometer survey released July 12 shows Czech EU membership approval has dropped below 50 percent for the first time, ČTK reported. Compared to 2006 figures, fewer Czechs think the country benefits from EU membership, though a majority still trusts EU institutions more than domestic political institutions. Two-thirds feel poorly informed about European politics.

UK Government officials have said they’ll expel four Russian diplomats after Russia’s refusal to extradite a suspect in the poisoning of Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko in London, the BBC reported. The Foreign Office said other issues of cooperation with Russia will also be reviewed. Litvinenko died in November 2006 of polonium poisoning. British prosecutors requested the extradition of former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi in May.

NETHERLANDS A former Serbian police officer pleaded not guilty July 16 to five charges of killing and persecuting ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999, the Associated Press reported. Vlastimir Djordjević, an aide to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević, had earlier refused to submit a plea to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague. He was arrested in June in Montenegro after hiding for six years.
BULGARIA A ruling on the death sentence appeal of five Bulgarian nurses in Libya was delayed July 16, but a deal to free the women may be near, Reuters reported July 17. Compensation of $1 million (20.7 million Kč) per victim is reportedly part of the deal. The nurses and a Palestinian doctor have been in jail since 1999 and on death row since 2004, convicted of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV. The nurses say the children were infected by unsanitary hospital practices.
UK Two suspects arrested in connection with attempted car-bomb terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow in June were released without charge July 15, the Associated Press reported. The two men were arrested at a hospital near Glasgow where Bilal Abdullah, a passenger in the car that slammed into the Glasgow Airport, worked.
BELARUS Secret police have broken up a Polish spy network that sought information on a Russian-Belarusian air-defense system, the Russian Interfax agency reported. Belarus’ KGB deputy chairman said July 15 that five former soldiers, both Russian and Belarusian citizens, had been arrested.
PORTUGAL A new law legalizing abortion came into effect July 15, legalizing abortions on fetuses up to 10 weeks old but giving doctors the right to refuse to do the procedure on moral grounds, Agence France-Presse reported. Initial reports found at least nine of 50 public hospitals would not guarantee they’d perform the procedure.
GREECE Strong winds continued to fan wildfires on mainland and island Greece July 14–15, with more than 100 fires reported, the Associated Press reported. The fires avoided inhabited areas and firefighters were able to extinguish every blaze, officials said.
FRANCE Unions representing Air France employees appealed to company shareholders July 12 to stop participating in the forced deportation of failed asylum claimants, Agence France-Presse reported. The unions say some employees have been traumatized by witnessing the process. A total of 6,000 people were deported in the first five months of this year, 2,200 of them under police escort, the interior minister said.
UK Briton Lewis Gordon Pugh became the first person to swim at the North Pole July 15, successfully completing a 1-kilometer (0.62 miles) swim in the –1.8 C (28.8 F) waters, the BBC reported. Pugh, who made the swim to draw attention to climate change, called it a “tragedy” that swimming in the once ice-choked North Pole was possible.
SPAIN Thirteen people were injured July 15 on the final day of the annual running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, the Associated Press reported. Included among the wounded were two American brothers who were gored simultaneously on either horn of a runaway bull. The last fatality in the traditional event, which dates back to 1591, was in 1995.

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