Copyright (c) 2010 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
By: Ian Willoughby
* Prime Minister Petr Necas says cost-cutting measures could cause
growth in the Czech economy to slow next year.
* Mr Necas has raised doubts over a Finance Ministry plan to use a cut
in income tax breaks to create a flood solidarity fund.
* The management of Sparta Prague football club have fined captain
Tomas Repka in connection with an alleged drink driving incident.
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Necas says government cuts could slow growth next year
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The prime minister, Petr Necas, says that government cost-cutting
measures could cause growth in the Czech economy to slow by 0.6 or 0.7
percent next year. Speaking on a TV debate programme he said, however,
that the cuts were necessary - otherwise debts would pull the country's
economy down in the medium term. Mr Necas's coalition government has
pledged to balance the budget by 2016. To achieve this, it plans to
reduce state sector salaries and expenditures by 10 percent, cut social
welfare and limit support for building savings.
The Czech National Bank predicts GDP growth of 1.8 percent in 2011,
while the Finance Ministry is more optimistic, foreseeing growth of 2.3
percent.
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PM raises doubts over creation of flood solidarity fund based on cut in
tax breaks
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Prime Minister Necas has raised doubts over the introduction of a
solidarity fund to deal with the effects of flooding in the future.
Following floods in north Bohemia two weeks ago, the minister of
finance, Miroslav Kalousek, said all working Czechs would contribute to
the fund in the form of a CZK 100-a-month cut in income tax breaks, a
move some critics slammed as nothing less than a new tax. On Czech
Television on Sunday the prime minister said he was now considering
whether to go ahead with the plan, adding that the money to deal with
flooding ought to be found from other sources.
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PM confirms Hodac is among three serious candidates for state secretary
for EU affairs job
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Speaking on the same television show, Prime Minister Necas confirmed
that Ivan Hodac was a candidate for the newly created post of state
secretary for European Union affairs. Mr Hodac has been the head of the
European Automobile Manufacturers' Association for nearly a decade. The
prime minister said there were two other serious aspirants for the
post, with the chosen candidate due to be announced in a few weeks'
time. The filling of the post, which would succeed the deputy PM for EU
affairs of previous governments, has ruffled some feathers in the
governing coalition. The foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, told
the newspaper Lidove noviny that if Mr Necas's party the Civic
Democrats wanted a car lobbyist, it was their issue.
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Police investigating stabbing of young woman in neck
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A woman of 20 was found by a neighbour with a knife sticking out of her
throat in a corridor of her apartment building in the Prague suburb of
Stodulky on Sunday afternoon. She is now in a serious condition in
hospital, a police spokesperson said. There have been media reports
that the woman's boyfriend is a suspect in the attack.
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Man shot while fishing in rubber dinghy on Vltava in Prague
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A 34-year-old man was shot in the leg by an unknown assailant while
floating on the River Vltava in Prague on Sunday. Police said the
shooting occurred around noon in the suburb of Sedlec. The man and
another foreigner were fishing from a rubber dinghy when shots rang out
from the bank of the river. The victim has been taken to hospital and
police are investigating the incident.
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Bat experts gather for international conference in Prague
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Around 500 bat experts from around the world are gathering in Prague
for the 15th International Bat Research Conference, which gets underway
in the Czech capital on Monday. The first such meeting was held in
Prague in 1968, though it was marred by the invasion of Czechoslovakia
by Warsaw Pact troops. Accompanying the conference will be the launch
of a new publication mapping the bat populations of the Czech Republic
and Slovakia, and the broadcasting of a documentary made in
collaboration with Czech Television.
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Sparta fine captain Tomas Repka for alleged drink driving
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The management of Sparta Prague football club have fined captain Tomas
Repka in connection with an alleged drink driving incident. The
sanction was imposed days after a Czech tabloid reported that Repka had
got into his car and driven home, despite being inebriated. Sparta
refused to say how much the player was fined. Recently the former Czech
international, who is known for being hot headed, was banned for three
games for spitting at an opponent.
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Viktoria Plzen maintain lead in league with win that piles pressure on
Sparta boss Chovanec
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Viktoria Plzen have maintained their lead in Czech football's first
division after a 1:0 win over Sparta Prague in the capital on Saturday
evening, with the only goal of the game coming from Petr Jiracek on the
hour mark. That result follows a defeat for Sparta in the Champions
League in mid-week and puts more pressure on manager Jozef Chovanec,
who has blamed the title-holders' poor form on injury problems.
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Sunday marks anniversary of death of Legions writer Rudolf Medek
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Sunday is the 70th anniversary of the death of the renowned soldier and
writer Rudolf Medek. Medek was an officer in the Czechoslovak Legions
in Russia during World War I, and became well known thanks to his
stories set against that backdrop. He fought in the Battle of Zborov in
1917 and later negotiated with both the Russians and the Western Allies
before organising the return of the legionnaires to the newly founded
Czechoslovakia. His novels were banned by both the Nazis and the
Communists.
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Book mapping repression of long-haired men in 1960s launched at music
festival
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A new book about how the Communist authorities targeted young men with
long hair in the 1960s was launched at the Open Air Festival in the
east Bohemian town of Trutnov on Saturday. Entitled Vrat'te nam vlasy!
(Give Us Our Hair Back!), it maps in detail how the Communists used the
state security apparatus to repress long-haired men in 1966. At the
launch, poet and former dissident Ivan Martin "Magor" Jirous, who spent
8.5 years in jail under communism, said the book described the
pre-history of a group of alternative youths who later contributed to
the launch of the Trutnov festival as an underground event in 1987.
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Weather
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Forecasters say temperatures should cool to the mid 20s Celsius in the
coming days. We can expect a good deal of sunshine with occasional
storms.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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Letter from Prague
Prague overrun by friendly people... when will it all end?
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Some people say that Czechs are unfriendly. Obviously, such people are
simply not in the right place at the right time. Try any central Prague
metro exit or the top of Wenceslaus Square for example, where I have
been stopped by the friendliest Czechs imaginable every day for the
last two months now, sometimes even several times a day, sometimes
several times within five minutes. They want to talk to me about all
kinds of things.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130956
Czech Books
Czech literary treasures in London
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Not many of the thousands of passengers arriving every day at London's
busy St Pancras Station are aware that they are passing just a few
dozen metres away from one of the largest and most diverse collections
of Czech books outside the Czech Republic. Tucked in beside the station
is the huge, but surprisingly inconspicuous complex of the British
Library. In this week's Czech Books, David Vaughan shows us some of the
highlights of the library's rich Czech collection.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130925
Mailbox
Mailbox 8.22.2010
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In this week's Mailbox: A technical problem on our website, ways to
help the flood-stricken areas in North Bohemia, Vaclav Havel directing
his first movie. Listeners quoted: Stephen Hrebenach, Maria Golia,
Christoph Preutenborbeck.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130886
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