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November 22nd, 2008
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June 11th, 2008 | Current Issue

Out of time
Supreme Court tries prosecutor for murder

EC seeks to ease Schengen travel
Foreigners with type-D visas can cross borders more freely

ČSSD names Senate candidates
Among party nominations, some familiar faces surface

Locals react to anti-Muslim sketch
Communities in Prague and Brno respond with tolerance to inflammatory posters

Activists forced out of 'Peaceland'
Radar protesters held by police after forming an independent state

Czech trams head for Washington
After success in Oregon, Škoda trams to debut in U.S. capital

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BRIEFS


SPAIN Around 90,000 Spanish truck drivers launched an indefinite strike June 9, parking their vehicles beside toll booths near the French border, preventing other trucks from passing and causing traffic delays. The protest is over soaring oil prices, up 20 percent since last year, the BBC reported. Participating drivers have warned that supermarkets will run out of supplies within days.

UKRAINE Rescuers brought two surviving miners to the surface June 9 after a gas explosion at the Karl Marx mine northeast of the regional center Donetsk. The body of a third miner was found 750 meters (2,461 feet) below the surface, Reuters reported. Rescuers also attempted to descend a ventilation shaft to a depth of 1,000 meters where 34 other miners were believed to be trapped.
KOSOVO Security guards exchanged fire with at least one armed intruder who broke into the home of Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci June 7, the BBC reported. Thaci, who was not at home at the time, condemned the unknown intruders for instigating an “attack against the rule of law in Kosovo.”
GERMANY An incinerator on the outskirts of Hamburg will become a destination for trash building up in Naples, Italy. For 11 weeks, a 56-car train will arrive in Hamburg daily bearing 700 tons of refuse, The New York Times reported. The incinerator’s director called the arrangement a temporary solution.
GREECE Two people were killed and dozens injured in an earthquake in southern Greece June 9, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) reported. The earthquake was centered around the north Peloponnesian city of Patras, approximately 215 kilometers (133 miles) west of Athens, and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.25.
RUSSIA The government will up its fight against corruption with an electronic property database that will allow officials to more easily see what people own. President Dmitry Medvedev said he will target corruption to ensure stability and high rates of economic growth, Reuters reported June 7. Analysts say the database will be useful in pinpointing discrepancies between declared income and property.
UK A judge ordered a hearing into whether the government should have to turn over evidence bearing on accusations by a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who says he was tortured during an interrogation in Morocco. The judge rejected the argument by the UK government that releasing documents risked more evidence of future mistreatment of CIA prisoners, the IHT reported.
ITALY Approximately 10,000 gay rights supporters marched through Rome June 7, many chanting slogans against the Vatican and the country’s new conservative government. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has been clear that it has no intention of passing legislation that would legally recognize gay couples, Reuters reported.
SPAIN A bombing attack that has been linked to the armed Basque separatist group ETA decimated the printing press of a newspaper in northern Spain June 8, the IHT reported. The newspaper El Correo in the town of Zamudio is known for its hard-line stance against separatist violence.
IRELAND Critics of the draft treaty to overhaul the European Union believe the treaty would undermine democracy and leave Ireland with a weaker voice in the 27-member group, the IHT reported. Ireland is the only EU member country holding a referendum on the treaty, and will vote on the ratification of the document June 12.

ARTISTS Prague Mayor Pavel Bém announced June 6 he will reverse a controversial arts funding program that had tied municipal funding to ticket sales, Lidové noviny reported. He blamed the system’s flaws, which endangered not-for-profit theaters, on Milan Richter, the city councilor responsible for culture. Bém’s decision followed a series of protests staged by the arts community.

STRIKE One-third of Prague schools closed June 7 due to a nationwide education workers’ strike, Pražský deník reported. In addition to preschool, elementary and high-school teachers, the strike for a pay increase was joined by various school staffers, including cooks and caretakers.
PRESIDENT President Václav Klaus received his first working visit in the hospital June 9 after undergoing hip replacement surgery last week. His chancellor, Jiří Weigl, said Klaus has not yet received any politicians and that the president’s schedule was not being overloaded, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. The president’s condition is good, and his convalescence is expected to last about three months.
PALACH The Czech ambassador to France is looking for a location for a statue of Jan Palach, who died by self-immolation in protest of the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The statue was made in France by a Hungarian sculptor. There is speculation that President Nicolas Sarkozy could hand the statue over to the Czech Republic during his visit to Prague later this month, ČTK reported.
LIBRARY Petra Paroubková, wife of the Czech senior opposition Social Democrat (ČSSD) leader Jiří Paroubek, is calling for fundraising for a new National Library building in Prague. After meeting with library Director Vlastimil Ježek, Paroubková said Czechs should collect money for the library as they did for the National Theater in the 19th century, ČTK reported.
DERAILED Authorities are now investigating the June 7 derailment of a regional passenger train in Čelákovice, central Bohemia, Mladá fronta Dnes reported. None of the passengers on board was injured in the accident, which caused damages of approximately 4.8 million Kč ($300,000), according to police.

RADAR U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed she will travel to Prague in July to sign the two U.S.–Czech treaties on the installation of the radar base, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. The date is soon to be determined, the daily Právo reported June 10. The treaties — the main radar treaty and the SOFA treaty that will govern U.S. troops stationed at the base — will have to be ratified by Parliament.

WOLVES The Brno Zoo became one of the few in Europe to successfully breed arctic wolves when twin puppies were recently born, ČTK reported June 10. The offspring took zoo keepers by surprise when they emerged from a den built by their mother, and it is now believed they were born five weeks ago. The zoo is also home to 6-month-old polar bear twins named Bill and Tom.
U.S. TRAVEL The Czech Senate approved an agreement between the United States and the European Union June 4 requiring EU country airlines to provide passenger data to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ČTK reported. Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra has previously said that the Czech Republic would be among the first group of new countries to join the U.S. visa waiver program.

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