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December 4th, 2008
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January 30th, 2008 | Current Issue

Race for the castle
Presidential election 2008: A side-by-side look at the candidates

Media highlight dark pasts of contenders
Secret police files and criminal complaints make headlines

Public trusts government less than it trusts European Union
Poll: Czechs, Hungarians, Poles least positive about leaders

Soldiers ready for Afghan mission
Duties to range from detecting mines to delivering babies

Double murderer appeals court ruling of life sentence
South Bohemian man could be 31st criminal now serving life in jail

Veteran status possible for fighters
Bill would recognize Third Resistance men and women officially

New electronic systems ease bureacracy obstacles
Opencard, Czech Point lessen personal record run-around

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BRIEFS


RUSSIA The government disqualified the leading opposition presidential candidate Jan. 27 from appearing on the election ballot, saying 13 percent of signatures collected in his support were invalid. The Central Election Commission’s decision against Mikhail Kasyanov has cleared the way for the Kremlin’s candidate, Dmitri Medvedev, to run virtually unchallenged, according to The New York Times (NYT).

GERMANY The man believed to be the last German World War I veteran died in January in Cologne, according to a Jan. 27 Associated Press report. Erich Kästner was 107 years old. He entered the army in 1918 and was sent to the Western Front but never to the front lines, according to his son.
ITALY After losing a confidence vote Jan. 24, Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned. Prodi, from the center-left party, lost the vote 161 to 156, ending his 20-month tenure in the post, according to the NYT. Leaders then mulled whether to hold a new election, which former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is favored to win.
UK Protesting a government decision over pay, more than 22,500 police officers from across the country marched through central London Jan. 23, according to Bloomberg News. The protest was the first over pay in six years. The government’s decision against backdating the officers’ annual raise effectively limited the increase to 1.9 percent.
FRANCE A former trader who is believed to have cost a French bank $7.2 billion surrendered to police Jan. 27. Jerome Kerviel, who worked at Société Générale, is alleged to have orchestrated an elaborate fraud over the past year that involved betting on European stock index futures, according to the NYT. The bank uncovered the scheme Jan. 18.

RADAR Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek is scheduled to discuss the missile-defense shield with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. at the end of February. The meeting will also include talks about NATO’s missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported.

WASTE The Education Ministry wasted tens of millions of crowns on the construction of Web sites for teachers and schools over the past five years, Právo reported Jan. 28. Experts report that the same Web sites could have been created for a small fraction of the actual amount spent.
SEIZED Customs officers confiscated nearly 17,000 kilos of tobacco and 9 million cigarettes without valid stamps in Prague 9, ČTK reported Jan. 28. The sale of such illegal products would deprive the state of about 50 million Kč ($2.8 million) in taxes, according to a Prague Customs Directorate spokesperson.
BIRTHS Prague maternity wards are overloaded, causing more expectant mothers to travel to central Bohemian hospitals to give birth, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported Jan. 29. A popular destination is the Neratovice hospital, which is also currently at capacity. Other hospitals receiving a large number of Prague mothers-to-be are in Beroun and Hořovice.
RESEARCH The village of Vestec, central Bohemia, is to be turned into a center of Czech and European science. A large biotechnological and biomedical research center is to be built there within the next five years on 5 hectares (12.4 acres) of land owned by the Czech Academy of Sciences, Hospodářské noviny reported Jan. 28. The site was chosen for its convenient access from both Prague and the D1 highway.
SMOKING President Václav Klaus opposes a bill that would ban smoking in restaurants, citing concerns that such a regulation would be a limitation of individual freedoms, the daily Lidové noviny reported Jan. 29. Klaus himself is a nonsmoker. The bill was proposed by senior ruling Civic Democratic Party Deputy Boris Šťastný. The Chamber of Deputies may vote on it Feb. 6.
CHURCH The state should settle its property relations with churches within a two-year period at most, as opposed to the planned 60-year process, former Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said, according to a Jan. 28 ČTK report. He said the government could draw funds to compensate churches through the sale of state property, such as Prague Airport.

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