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Copyright (c) 2008 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Saturday, February 28th, 2009
By: Rosie Johnston
* Police are investigating 51 people in connection with allegations of
corruption at the Czech Defence Ministry, and fraudulent tenders worth
more than 300 million crowns.
* Deputy Environment Minister Jan Dusik has been chosen as the Green
Party's number-one candidate for the upcoming European elections.
* Police have received five weapons as part of an ongoing firearms
amnesty that they say were used in violent crime.
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Former Defence Ministry employees implicated in million-crown
corruption scandal
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Police are investigating 51 people in connection with allegations of
corruption at the Czech Defence Ministry, and fraudulent tenders worth
more than 300 million crowns (13.5 million USD). On Friday, a Defence
Ministry spokesperson confirmed that a number of tenders dating from
2005 were being looked into. Andrej Cirtek admitted that one third of
the accused were former employees of the ministry, though none of those
implicated worked for the ministry any more, he said. The other
individuals being investigated all came from private enterprise. The
tenders in question all related to smaller-scale construction and
maintenance of ministry properties.
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Greens choose candidates for European elections
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Deputy Environment Minister Jan Dusik has been chosen as the Green
Party's number-one candidate for the upcoming European elections, it
was announced on Saturday. Number two on the list of Green candidates
is MP Katerina Jacques. The Greens were the last political party in the
Czech Republic to decide upon their candidates for the European
elections, they did so at a national council meeting in Prague on
Saturday. The Czech Republic will have a total of 22 seats in the new
European Parliament, at the moment, it has 24. Party leader Martin
Bursik has said that he would consider the election of three Green
candidates to the European Parliament a 'massive success'.
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Police investigate owners of five guns handed in during amnesty
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Police have received five weapons as part of an ongoing firearms
amnesty that, they say, were used in violent crime. An amnesty on
illegal firearms has been running since the beginning of February in
the Czech Republic and is set to last until July. On Friday, a
spokesperson said that following forensic tests police were
investigating the owners of five of the weapons handed in. So far, some
755 guns have been given to the police as part of the amnesty. This is
the third amnesty of its type in the Czech Republic in recent years.
Over 3000 illegal weapons were handed over to the police in 1996 and
then 2003, including a WWII Soviet-made anti-tank rifle and a British
sub-machine gun dating from the same period.
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European Disability Forum meets in Prague
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The European Disability Forum is holding a meeting in Prague this
weekend as part of the Czech Republic's EU presidency. During the first
day of the meeting, the head of the Czech Council for the Disabled,
Jiri Moravek, said that the Czech Republic lagged behind older EU
members when it came to the integration of disabled people into the
community. The Czech Republic pledged to pass an anti-discrimination
bill before joining the EU in 2004. The bill was passed by Parliament
but vetoed by President Vaclav Klaus. As such, the Czech Republic could
now be fined by the European Commission for failing to honour its
commitment.
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Vlcek proposes fines for skiving MPs
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The Head of the Czech Lower House, Miloslav Vlcek, would like to fine
MPs who are unable to explain their absence from sessions of
Parliament, reports Mlada fronta Dnes on Saturday. The reaction to Mr
Vlcek's proposal has been lukewarm, writes the daily. The head of the
Lower House would like to fine deputies who are absent from more than
30 percent of parliamentary sessions without good reason. He proposes
the money will be docked from MPs' expense accounts, which can amount
to 40,000 crowns (1,800 USD) a year. Mr Vlcek will bring the proposal
to Parliament in March. So far, deputies have questioned how the system
would be monitored.
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Czech police confiscate 1440 vehicles in 2008
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Police impounded 1440 vehicles in 2008, a spokesperson announced on
Saturday. In 2007, the number of vehicles confiscated by police was
677. Each time, the majority of the vehicles confiscated were lorries;
in 2008, the number of foreign lorries impounded by Czech police
totaled 840. According to spokeswoman Veronika Benediktova, the Czech
police also confiscated a number of vehicles from those driving well
above the speed limit on the country's motorways. So far this year,
some 79 vehicles have been confiscated.
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Langer calls for changes at the head of Czech football association
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Interior Minister Ivan Langer has come out in criticism of those at the
head of the Czech football association and called for a change in
leadership. In Saturday's edition of the newspaper Sport, Mr Langer
attacked FA bosses for preparing insufficiently for a change in the way
stadiums are policed. When the Czech Gambrinus Liga resumed after the
winter break last week, football grounds' security was supposed to be
taken care of by the clubs themselves, and not the Czech police. But,
after violence erupted at a match in Brno, the police were forced to
intervene and five arrests were made. On Saturday, Ivan Langer said
that if the Czech FA had prepared better for the change, police
intervention would not have been necessary. The head of the football
association Pavel Mokry responded that it was not his organization
which was to blame and called Mr Langer's comments 'inadmissible state
intervention' into the FA and its board.
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Tennis: Benesova and Zahlavova Strycova out of Mexican Open in
semi-finals
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In tennis, Czech women's number one Iveta Benesova is out of the
Mexican Open after losing to the tournament's number two seed, Flavia
Pennetta in the semi-finals. Benesova, who won the competition in 2004,
lost 6-3 6-3 to the Italian on Friday. Pennetta, the defending
champion, will now go on to play tournament favourite Venus Williams,
who beat the Czech Republic's Barbora Zahlavova Strycova on Saturday.
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Weather
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It should take a turn for the colder over the next couple of days, with
temperatures dropping down to between 2 - 6 degrees Celsius. Expect
rain and cloudy skies throughout the weekend.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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SoundCzech
To have a bug in your bonnet
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Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague's
Czech language programme in which you can learn popular Czech
expressions through song lyrics. Today's song, called Snad jsem to
zavinil ja (It was probably my fault), is by the rock band Olympic and
the phrase to look out for is brouka v hlave mas (or brouk v hlave).
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/113687
Magazine
Magazine 2.28.2009
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Czechs are feeling the credit crunch but fortune-tellers say their
business is booming! A woman gives birth on the D-five highway in minus
ten degree temperatures, and why the swans of the Vltava river need to
go on a diet. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/113730
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all rights reserved. http://www.radio.cz, E-mail: cr@radio.cz
It's now possible to capture urine for use as a fertilizer, reducing the amount that ends up in wastewater treatment facilities and waterways. Sweden's "NoMix" urine-division toilet collects waste for future use by farmers. "If they can use urine and it's cheap, they'll use it," said professor Petter Jenssen of Norway's Agricultural University. 
