Shooting incident mars Paroubek book launch
Opposition leader Jiřà Paroubek’s book launch was marred by a shooting incident on Thursday night.
The son of Mr. Paroubek’s close friend and former advisor Vaclav KoÄŤka was shot to death following a verbal dispute with one of the other guests at the book launch businessman BohumĂr DuriÄŤko. Eyewitnesses said the two men exchanged USA lead 9-7 before final day at Ryder Cup ...
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Czech Senate approves e-government bill ... angry words at the table and DuriÄŤko pulled out his gun and fired three successive shots at Vaclav KoÄŤka jr. The incident happened in the late night hours after most of the book launch guests had already departed, including the opposition leader himself.
Cheb region hit by series of light quakes
The Cheb region, in the western part of the country, has been hit by a series of light earthquakes, the strongest measuring 3,9 on the Richter scale. The first quake hit on Wednesday night, the strongest came in early hours of Friday morning, waking people from their sleep at 5,30 am. Monitoring devices picked up minor seismic activity across the country, though the public only felt the quake in Cheb where it was the strongest registered since late 1985. No damage is reported.
No change in Czech interest rates, says central bank
The Czech National Bank has defied the expectations of analysts by leaving the benchmark interest rate at 3.5 percent. Economists believed the bank’s board was preparing to announce a half-point cut in interest rates on Thursday. A day earlier, central banks in a number of countries announced a coordinated interest rates cut in an effort to support economies threatened by the financial crisis. The Czech National Bank is still expected to cut rates at a policy meeting planned for early next month.
After reaching four-year low, shares on Prague Stock Exchange rise slightly
Shares on the Prague Stock Exchange rose by 0.14 percent on Thursday. That slight uptick follows a week of falls on the bourse, which on Wednesday closed at its lowest point since 2004. Brokers said their was a new sense of calm following coordinated international interest rate cuts and other measures implemented to deal with the recent turmoil.
Over half population breathing air containing dangerous levels of carcinogens
Over half the population breathed air containing dangerous levels of carcinogens last year, according to a government study quoted by the news website aktualne.cz. Twenty-two of the Czech Republic’s 31 air measuring stations recorded levels of the chemical benzopyren at above set health limits, the report found. While limits were exceeded on under 5 percent of the country’s territory, 51 percent of the population live in those areas. Benzopyren is created by the burning of coal and oil and in the production of coke and iron. The cabinet is likely to discuss the report next week, aktualne.cz said.
Czechs first in Europe in percentage of plastic containers recycled
The Czech Republic is number one in Europe in terms of the recycling of plastics, according to a Eurostat report. In 2006 44.3 percent of plastic containers in the Czech Republic were recycled, three percent more than the traditional leader in this area, Germany.
Minister: small post offices will only close if local councils agree
Small post offices will only be closed with the agreement of local authorities, the Czech interior minister, Ivan Langer, said on Thursday. He said he would not give approval to the closure of any branches of the postal service unless the local town hall had assented to the move. Czech Post had been planning to shut down nearly 180 small branches. There are nearly 3,400 post offices around the country, with the postal service employing 37,000 people.
Interior minister wants more spending on languages needed by spies
Interior Minister Langer has presented the cabinet with a plan to increase spending on the teaching of Persian, Arabic and Chinese, according to press reports. Mr Langer said the Czech Republic’s security services needed officers skilled in such languages in order to function effectively. He and the education minister, Ondřej Liška, are due to hold talks on the plan during the next week, before the cabinet considers it again.
Owner of exchange office suspected of gigantic money laundering scheme arrested
Police have filed charges against one of the owners of a Prague exchange office suspected of laundering over CZK 5.3 billion (nearly USD 300 million). A raid was carried out on the offices of Aktiv Exchange on the city’s Národnà St on Monday night. The cash allegedly laundered at the bureau de change mainly ended up in bank accounts in China and Vietnam, a police spokesperson said.
Bins set to return to Prague metro system after
The operators of the Prague underground rail system are considering bringing back litter bins, the newspaper Lidové noviny reported. The bins were removed from Metro stations seven years ago as a security measure in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. A representative of Prague’s transport authority said the bins could return in a few weeks’ time. Prague Town Hall, meanwhile, is in favour of bringing back the bins, but only in the vestibules of stations – not on platforms.
Czech version of youtube launched
Google launched a new Czech version of the video-posting website youtube on Thursday. Youtube.cz is the 10th localised version launched in Europe. A Google representative said it would make it easier for people in this country to show the world their talent and their famous Czech humour.
Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard record Simpsons parts
The Czech musician Markéta Irglová and her Irish partner Glen Hansard are set to appear in an episode of The Simpsons, the website iDnes.cz reported. The couple, who this year won an Oscar for the song Falling Slowly from the movie Once, have already recorded their parts for an episode of the popular animated series in which they appear in a pub in Dublin. Irglová and Hansard are beginning a month-long tour of Europe under the name Swell Season next month.
Weather
We can expect quite a lot of sunshine over the next few days, with temperatures of up to 21 degrees Celsius.
(radio-Prague)
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