Copyright (c) 2010 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Friday, March 12th, 2010
By: Jan Richter
* The lower house of parliament has extended the term of a British
military training mission in the Czech Republic.
* A Czech humanitarian aid worker kidnapped in Haiti has been released.
* The Czech Education Ministry is pushing for compulsory attendance of
pre-school programmes.
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MPs extend British military training mission in Czech Republic
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The lower house of the Czech Parliament on Friday extended the term of
a British military training mission in the Czech Republic until 2015.
The motion was supported by MPs from all parties in the house but the
communists. Communist deputy Vaclav Exner told reporters his party
opposed the presence of any foreign troops on Czech territory.
The British military training and advisory mission, consisting of
around 30 experts, has organized courses for military staff from
various NATO countries and members of NATO's Partnership for Peace
programme at a Czech army base in Vyskov, in southern Moravia, since
2000. The British mission also assists in the training of Czech army
officers.
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Kidnapped humanitarian aid worker in Haiti released
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A Czech humanitarian aid worker in Haiti and her Belgian colleague have
been released after being kidnapped last week. The aid organisation
Doctors without Borders for which both women work has declined to
provide further details on the situation, including whether any ransom
was paid, but has said that both are in good condition. The women, one
of whom is a nurse, were apparently abducted last Friday in a suburb of
the capital Port-au-Prince in the first kidnapping of aid workers since
the earthquake of January 12. Doctors without Borders currently has six
Czech and Slovak workers in Haiti dealing with health, water and
sanitation issues. Czech aid organisations operating in the country
have repeatedly emphasised that the situation there is secure and that
they are for the most part provided military protection only when
distributing aid.
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Ministry pushes for compulsory pre-school education
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The Czech Education Ministry is pushing for compulsory pre-school
education, Deputy Education Minister Jindrich Kitzberger told Czech
Radio on Friday. Some 7 percent of Czech children miss out on the last
year of pre-school education, many of them Romanies who come from a
socially-challenged environment. The ministry believes an extra year of
compulsory pre-school education could remove barriers Romany children
often face when entering elementary schools. The ministry had earlier
carried out a survey among teachers and parents, and says they welcomed
the idea.
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Quality of air in northern Moravia worsens
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The quality of air in northern Moravia has again worsened, the Czech
Hydrometeorological Institute said on Friday. Most measuring stations
in the region registered values twice exceeding emission standards of
dust. The regional authorities have asked the biggest polluters in the
area, including the steel producer Arcelor Mittal, to say how they are
going to limit emissions. The lower house of Parliament also called on
the Czech government on Friday to come up with concrete measures to
improve the situation.
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Foreign Minister Jan Kohout will not run in May's general elections
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The Czech foreign minister, Jan Kohout, is not going to run in the
general elections scheduled for May. Mr Kohout, who was expected to top
the Social Democrat ballot in the Plzen region, was rejected by the
party's regional organization, against the wishes of the party
leadership. The news comes a day after the Social Democrats announced
that Interior Minister Martin Pecina will head their ballot in Prague.
The move provoked an outcry from the right-wing Civic Democrats, who
said this breached an earlier agreement between the two parties about
the support for the caretaker government. Prime Minister Jan Fischer
reacted by saying that he would not prevent any member of his
government to run in the elections; Mr Fischer said however he would
make sure his ministers would keep campaigning out of their agenda.
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Passer-by finds newborn baby in snow
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A passer-by found a newborn baby lying in a heap of snow in the central
Bohemian town of Pribram on Friday, the police said. The girl, who was
born with the last 24 hours, was taken to hospital; doctors said her
condition was stable, and she will survive. She was born healthy; she
weighs 2.8 kg and measures 28 cm. The police are looking for her mother
who will face charges of wilful abandonment.
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Prague to be sanctioned as single voting district for local elections
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Czechs MPs supported a motion on Friday to legally sanction the Czech
capital of Prague as a single voting district in local elections. The
bill will now go to parliamentary committees for further debate. If
approved by the lower house of Parliament, the new law would thwart
plans by the right-of-centre Civic Democrats who want to divide the
capital into several voting districts to eliminate smaller political
groups. During the last local elections in 2006, Prague was a single
voting district while in the previous elections four years earlier, the
capital was divided into five constituencies.
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Oldest Czech dies at 107
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The oldest citizen of the Czech Republic has died at the age of 107,
the daily Pravo reported on Friday. Mr Josef Flandera, who was born in
a Czech community in Ukraine, came to then Czechoslovakia with the
exile Czechoslovak army, and settled in northern Moravia after WWII. Mr
Flandera, who would have turned 108 in June, died on Saturday shortly
after being released from hospital. The oldest Czech is now Julie
Vasickova from the south Moravian village of Prusanky, who was born in
1903, 15 years before the foundation of Czechoslovakia.
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Czech households' debt increases eight times since 2000
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The debts of Czech households with banks have increased eight times
since the year 2000, and now amount to more than 973 billion crowns, or
over 52 billion US dollars, according to figures released by the Czech
Statistical Office on Friday. Analysts believe that the situation is
not dramatic as around 70 percent of the debts are mortgages. However,
the fastest growing types of loans are those used to pay for mobile
phones, education and health care. The relative rate of Czech household
indebtedness is at about 53 percent of eurozone levels.
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Fair Play Club awards for 2009 presented
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Czech orienteer Michal Smola received the main award of the Czech Fair
Play Club for 2009 on Friday. Smola, a member of the Czech national
orienteering team, helped save the life of a French competitor who
suffered serious injury at a World Championship race in Hungary last
year. The Czech Fair Play Club also awarded rower Vaclav Chalupa and
hockey player Josef Cerny for their sense of fair play demonstrated
throughout their sporting careers.
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Head of hockey's disciplinary committee resigns over criticism
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The head of the Czech ice hockey association's disciplinary committee,
Stanislav Sulc, stepped down on Friday. Mr Sulc resigned over criticism
concerning the committee's decision to punish a top league player who
purposefully injured his opponent in Tuesday's play off game between
Liberec and Ceske Budejovice. The committee banned Liberec's Stanislav
Bartovic for one game but other extraliga teams as well as many fans
thought the penalty was too light.
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Speed skater Martina Sablikova wins fourth World Cup in a row
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Czech double Olympic champion Martina Sablikova won her fourth
consecutive World Cup in long distance speed skating after triumphing
in the cup's final 3,000 metre event in Heerenveen, Netherlands on
Friday. The 22-year-old Sablikova was 20 points ahead of Germany's
Stephanie Beckert, who could still secure overall victory. But the
Czech beat her by 1.32 seconds in the final run to clinch the title.
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Weather
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The next few days should be cloudy with rain in lower altitudes, while
mountain areas might see up to 50 cm of fresh snow. Highest day
temperatures should range between -1 and +5 degrees Celsius.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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Current Affairs
Only Czech film in main competition at One World captures
transformation process in Kyrgyzstan
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All that Glitters by Tomas Kudrna is the only Czech film in the main
competition at the One World festival of human rights documentaries in
Prague. The film is about what happens when Western investors take over
a gold mine in a town in the ex-Soviet state of Kyrgyzstan which is
also threatened by environmental disaster. I spoke to the director of
All that Glitters ahead of its world premiere on Saturday.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125898
Current Affairs
Arnost Lustig behind the counter at the Franz Kafka book shop in Prague
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Arnost Lustig, one of the Czech Republic's literary greats, has been
giving salespeople a helping hand this week. Although still weak from
an ongoing battle with cancer, Mr. Lustig put a smile on his face and
spent a week behind the sales desk at the Franz Kafka book shop in
Prague, attracting crowds of people who came to buy an autographed book
and wish him well.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125897
Current Affairs
Czech humanitarian worker in Haiti safely recovered after five-day
abduction
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There are only a handful of Czech humanitarian aid workers in Haiti; on
Monday it emerged that one of them had been kidnapped last week and
held for seven days. The aid organisation in question, the French-based
Doctors without Borders, has said that one Czech and one Belgian worker
were safely returned on Sunday, but has so far declined to shed more
light on their six-day ordeal, which is bound to change the way aid
agencies work in the earthquake-stricken country.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125896
Business News
Business News 3.12.2010
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In Business News this week: recession fears banished by surprise
statistics; Czech vehicle production rises in 2009; Volkswagen seeks to
curb Skoda competition; foreign investment falls, but less than
regional average; and Czech recording company makes Scottish buy
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125880
Arts
Zdenek Sykora 90 - A must-see exhibition in the Czech capital
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Artist Zdenek Sykora, who turned 90 last month, is without question one
of the Czech Republic's most important painters, whose style over his
long career developed from traditional landscapes to the abstract line
paintings for which he is certainly best known. A retrospective of some
of the artist's best work - including Line No. 24 on loan from Centre
Pompidou in Paris - is currently underway at Prague's Municipal
Library, a highly-respected gallery space within the city centre.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/125876
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