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Copyright (c) 2010 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Saturday, January 30th, 2010
By: Christian Falvey
* The European Court of Justice is to review a case involving pensions
paid by the Slovak state to Czechs who worked there when the two
countries were united.
* Hundreds of clients of the travel agency Sunny Days may face problems
with purchased trips as the company is denied insolvency insurance.
* The Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova has won the Australian Open
Juniors Championship, defeating the UK's Laura Robson 6:1, 7:6.
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Court of Justice to review Czech-Slovak pensions case
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The European Court of Justice in Luxemburg will be reviewing a case
involving pensions paid by the Slovak state to Czechs who worked there
when the two countries were united. The court, the highest in the
European Union, has been asked to hear the case by the Supreme
Administrative Court in Prague, which suspended proceedings on the
matter due to legal ambiguities. The outcome of the suit against the
Czech Social Security Administration would affect thousands of Czechs
who worked in Slovakia or for Slovakia-based offices and now receive
pensions for work abroad. The Czech Constitutional Court has already
ruled that such work carried out in the former Czechoslovakia cannot be
considered "work abroad". The pensions currently received by such
workers are several thousands of crowns per month less than they would
receive under the Czech pensions system.
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Sunny Days clients will have to seek compensation in court
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Hundreds of clients of one of the largest Czech travel agencies, Sunny
Days, may end up grounded without compensation, as the company's
insurer has refused to extend its bankruptcy policy. Spokesman of the
Association of Czech Travel Agencies Tomio Okamura said Saturday that
Sunny Days has transformed its trade status from a licensed to a free
business, to which bankruptcy does not apply. The company will
therefore be unable to sell trips, but may only intermediate them.
According to Mr Okamura, clients who are not reimbursed for purchased
excursions by the company itself will have to have their cases tried in
court. Sunny Days is one of the largest Czech travel agencies, and had
roughly 50,000 clients when it began facing financial troubles
resulting in flight delays in mid-2009. A number of Czech travel
agencies have gone bankrupt over the last year, including the largest,
Tomi Tour.
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EU President meets with Czech President and PM
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European Union President Herman Van Rompuy is continuing his first
official visit to Prague after meeting Friday with the Czech prime
minister, Jan Fischer, and President Vaclav Klaus, the latter a well
known opponent of EU integration and the Lisbon Treaty. Notably
neglecting to use the title of EU President, Mr Klaus told journalists
that he was receiving Mr Van Rompuy as he would any other "high-ranking
EU official", and said that the meeting had done nothing to change his
view of the European Union. After talks with Prime Minister Fischer, Mr
Rompuy said they had agreed that the EU must continue with aid to Haiti
even after media attention begins to wane, and that an upcoming
international conference would be key to organising long-term support
for the earthquake-stricken country, which the European Union has
promised 429 million euros in immediate humanitarian aid. Mr. Herman
Van Rompuy took up the post of EU President on January 1 and has since
conducted a tour of EU member states.
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PSA Peugeot Citroen recalls tens of thousands of cars made in Kolin
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The automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen is recalling tens of
thousands of Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 vehicles produced in their
plant in Kolin. PSA informed the media on Saturday that the vehicles,
which are only made in Kolin, would be called in for repair due to
suspicions of faulty accelerators. The move follows only a day after
Toyota, which shares the plant with PSA, announced it would be
recalling 1.8 million vehicles, including the Aygo model manufactured
in Kolin, for the same reason. The company said that the recall would
apply to "less than 100,000" vehicles. The accelerator pedal problem
has forced Toyota to recall eight million cars since last year, more
than it sold in 2009.
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Government to consider nurseries for two-year-olds to meet EU agreement
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The Czech Republic has agreed with other European states to make it
possible for 33% of children under the age of three to attend nursery.
There is currently only room for 5% of children in that age group in
Czech nurseries, and the state budget does not allow for the
expenditure. Prime Minister Fischer's cabinet has tasked experts from
the relevant ministries to assess the situation. According to the
website Aktualne.cz, the team intends to propose opening nurseries to
all children over two years of age - the current age limit is three -
with smaller classes for the smallest children, and more education
requirements on teachers. Much of the expected three-billion-crown
expense of such an expansion would likely come from EU funds.
Nonetheless, the proposal will not likely have an easy passage through
Parliament as the two strongest parties differ in their support for it.
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Forest owners charged steep fine for ignoring bark beetle
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The owners of a small forest near Hradec Kralove have been fined 360
thousand crowns for not completing an order to fell 320 square metres
of trees infected with the bark beetle, which has devastated forests
around the country. The order was issued in the summer of last year,
and much of the forest was felled accordingly, however the beetle still
spread to neighbouring forests. The owners appealed the fine
unsuccessfully to the Ministry of the Environment on the grounds that
they wanted to create a wilderness using the method of non-intervention
employed in the Sumava National Park in Southern Bohemia, a protected
wilderness that has been particularly hard hit by the bug.
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Waterfowl census shows more cormorants, less swans and eagles.
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A census of waterfowl in the Czech Republic carried out in January has
shown a decrease the number of swans and White-Tailed Eagles, and a
rise in the number of cormorants. Ornithologists say that the changes
are part of a trend of several years, whereby swans have been pushed
out by competing wild geese and, like the White-Tailed Eagle - the
largest bird of prey in the Czech Republic - have taken to wintering
farther south due to colder winters and icier ponds in the country.
Cormorants however have benefited greatly from protected status and
currently number roughly nine thousand. The birds have caused
considerable damage to the Czech fishing industry by consuming an
estimated half-tonne of fish a day.
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Karolina Pliskova wins Australian Open Juniors Championship
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17-year-old Karolina Pliskova has won the girls' singles event at the
Australian Open Juniors Championship in Melbourne, defeating the UK's
Laura Robson. After a pronounced win for the Czech in the first set,
Robson came back in the second but lost a tie breaker to end the match
6:1, 7:6. Pliskova's twin sister, Krystina, was ousted by Robson in the
semi-final. In other tennis action, Czech player Jaroslav Levinsky and
his playing partner, Russian Jekaterina Makarova, have made it to the
final in the mixed-doubles.
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Czech takes world juniors' championship in cyclo-cross
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Tomas Paprstka has won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, which
was held at the weekend in the South Bohemian town of Tabor. The Czech
Republic's Matej Lasak also finished fourth place. Paprstka set the
pace for most of the second half of the race, however ended neck and
neck at the finish line with Frenchman Julian Alaphilipp. The last
victory for a Czech in the world juniors' championship was that of
Martin Bina nine years ago, when the event was also held in Tabor.
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14th Sedivackuv Long dog sledding race ends
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The 14th annual Sedivackuv Long dog sledding race, considered one of
the most difficult in Europe, has ended in the Orlicke Mountains in the
north of the country. 92 mushers with some 620 dogs competed in the
four-day, 200-km race; only 48 completed the challenge. The race was
intended to run 222 kilometres, however it poor weather conditions on
Friday required that the route be shortened. The Sedivackuv Long is one
of four extreme-sport dog sledding races for the Iron Sled Dog Man
title, the rest of which are held in the Swiss and Austrian Alps.
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Weather
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Conditions over the coming days are expected to be party cloudy with a
chance of snow, and highs of -9 to -6 degrees Celsius.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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Magazine
Magazine
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A cheetah on the loose in Prague's Troya zoo, a driver jumps into the
Vltava river to avoid traffic police and what's in that chocolate? Find
out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/124579
SoundCzech
Doodley-squat
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Welcome to this week's edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague's Czech
language series in which you can learn new phrases with the help of
song lyrics. Today's song is by Czech rock musician Vladimir Misik and
is called Velikej Hever. The phrase to look out for is the somewhat
incongruous mit prd, which means to have nothing, or to have little to
show for something (such as one's efforts) or even to have a miserable
sum on your bank account.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/124528
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