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July 9th, 2008
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April 30th, 2008 | Current Issue

The fight for funding
With petitions and protests, nonprofit arts groups struggle to stay alive

First gay candidate runs for Senate
Hromada hopes bid will further acceptance of homosexuals

Communist Youth defends rights
Two years after being banned, group is ordered to dissolve

Budget, staffing woes plague Army
More elite troops are deployed abroad as funding issues continue

Heritage sites face threat of tramping
Museum officials worry that ancient artifacts will be lost

New element in national library debate
National Gallery director suggests housing books in Congress Center

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BRIEFS


GEORGIA A high-ranking Georgian defense official accused Russia of inciting conflict in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in an April 27 statement, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The statement came a day after Moscow announced it would take “all possible measures” to protect its citizens if war broke out. Russia has granted passports to most residents of Abkhazia and the region of South Ossetia.

SLOVAKIA Despite sharp criticism from media and watchdog groups, Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič signed into law a press bill limiting the freedom of print media April 25, the Slovak news server Mediálne.sk reported. The national journalists’ syndicate and publishers’ association are now turning to the Constitutional Court to repeal the law, which goes into effect June 1.
EU A demonstrator spacecraft for Europe’s proposed Galileo satellite navigation system was launched from Kazakhstan, the BBC reported April 26. The Giove-B satellite will test key technologies which will eventually be built into the 30 operational platforms forming the Galileo network. The system should be operational by the end of 2013.
GERMANY Berlin residents wanting to save the city’s historic Tempelhof airport from closing this year failed when not enough people voted in a referendum to make the outcome valid. While preliminary results indicated most ballots were cast in favor of keeping the airport, they accounted for only 21.7 percent of 2.4 million eligible voters, AP reported April 27. The closing is part of a plan for an airport southeast of the city, to be completed in 2011.
AUSTRIA The Amstetten man Josef Fritzl, who allegedly kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years while he sexually abused her and possibly fathered seven children with her, is under arrest, the BBC reported April 27. Based on a letter in the daughter’s handwriting that followed her 1984 disappearance, police previously thought the girl had run away. The father released her after one of his granddaughters was hospitalized with a serious illness.

RADAR The anticipated May 5 signing of a Czech-U.S. treaty to allow a radar base on Czech soil has been postponed, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported April 29. Due to the short length of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s Prague visit for a May 3 missile-defense conference, she is now expected to sign the main treaty in early June, along with the SOFA treaty, which will set the framework for the presence of U.S. troops at the base.  

LISBON TREATY The governing coalition opposes a bill to hold a referendum enabling the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, as proposed by the minority Communist Party, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told journalists April 28. The Senate submitted the treaty, a replacement for the failed EU constitution of 2005, for evaluation by the Constitutional Court April 22, according to ČTK.
MAY DAY City Hall registered 35 public rallies to be held in the city on May Day, May 1, according to ČTK. Organizers include rightist and left-wing extremists and various political parties, said Deputy Mayor Rudolf Blažek. City Hall will form four supervising groups to dissolve any of the meetings if public assembly laws are breached.
MISSIONS The government decided April 28 to allot 115 million Kč ($7.4 million) for Czech participation in civilian foreign missions, a 78 million increase over last year. Fourteen million Kč will go to the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan and 36 million Kč will finance missions in the Balkans, the Middle East, Georgia and Liberia.
POLICE Former Police chief Vladimír Husák will head the Foreigners’ Police as of May 1, Foreigners’ Police spokeswoman Barbora Kudláčková announced April 28. Husák, who was police chief since 2005, resigned from his post in May 2007, ČTK reported.

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