Top Czech News - Prague Daily Monitor

The French expulsion of Roma has no racist connotations, Prime Minister Petr Nečas told Czech Radio Saturday, adding that statements by Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg were rash. "French President Nicolas Sarkozy's expelling Romani citizens goes against the spirit and rules of the EU. To put it mildly, when inspecting the case, one cannot resist the suspicion that racist opinions plays a role, too," Schwarzenberg told the paper Lidové noviny on Saturday.

Fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejčíř can be neither arrested in South Africa nor deported and extradited to another country until the final decision on his request for political asylum is made, the High Court in Johannesburg ruled on Friday, Právo reported yesterday.

An international team headed by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec has proved that asteroids (minor planets) are not very compact as they can splinter and the splinters can move around their own orbit, the Czech Academy of Sciences (AV) has told ČTK.

Former Environment Minister Libor Ambrožek has been unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the CZK 10 million he used for a new luxurious house in Kyjov, south Moravia, daily Hospodářské noviny reported yesterday.

The allegedly illegal contaminated waste from the Czech NeOmA company shipped to Brazil contained plastics from "the green list" of waste approved for export, according to documentation the Czech Environment Ministry has received.

Russian chief of staff Nikolai Makarov today met Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra and focused on military reforms and modernisation in both countries.

The Defense Ministry will cancel 350 vacant jobs for soldiers and sack 700 civilian employees by the end of the year, daily E15 reported yesterday about the planned cuts in the military budget.

Jiří Pernes, former head of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, who was dismissed this spring after a scandal concerning his alleged plagiarism, is actually no plagiarist, the Academy of Sciences' commission concluded, daily Právo reported yesterday.

The Czech Republic is prepared to provide asylum to several Cuban dissidents released on the basis of a diplomatic agreement between Cuba, Spain and the Catholic Church, Právo reported yesterday,

Doctors in Prague's Na Homolce hospital have succeeded in performing a unique robotic operation of aneurysm of three arteries.

Not sense of justice, but sanitary reasons prompted Czech authorities to open the graves of Germans murdered in the aftermath of World War Two, daily Lidové noviny reported yesterday.

Police officers, firefighters and other security force members plan to stage a demonstration in September against the Interior Ministry's planned austerity measures, police trade unions head Milan Štěpánek told ČTK yesterday.

Some 1.5 million flyers will be distributed at schools at the beginning of the school year, warning of harassment through SMSes and the Internet, Ivana Šatrová of the Foundation O2 organising the project along with the civic group Aisis, told journalists yesterday.

The Senate yesterday nominated two candidates, former constitutional judge Pavel Varvařovský and chairman of Prague Jewish Community František Banyai, for the vacant post of ombudsman.

Representatives of arms manufacturers oppose the closure of some Czech embassies, as decided on by the government yesterday, saying that the move may worsen foreign trade.

The government yesterday approved a national plan for the use of energy from renewable sources under which more than 13% of total national consumption should be covered by renewable energy sources by 2020, Industry and Trade Ministry Spokesman Pavel Vlček told ČTK yesterday.

ČSSD offered its former leader Jiří Paroubek the post of Czech ambassador to Austria but Paroubek rejected it, the news server iDnes reported yesterday.

The Czech military will provide 24 flight hours within NATO's Strategic Air Lift Interim Solution (SALIS) system worth CZK 30 million for the transport of humanitarian aid to the flood-hit Pakistan, the Czech government agreed yesterday.

The government of Petr Nečas and the regional governors, all opposition Social Democrats, failed to agree on budget issues yesterday, clashing over the scrapped 7.5% state contribution to EU Regional Operational Programmes.

The government yesterday decided to close down embassies in Congo, Venezuela, Kenya, Yemen and Costa Rica at the end of January 2011 as part of the Foreign Ministry's planned budget savings. The Czech general consulates in Bombay and Sydney will also be closed and replaced by offices of Czech embassies in the capitals of India and Australia. Social Democrats have criticised the steps, saying they would harm Czech export.