CZECH TELEGRAPH

The Week in News

20. 3. 2010

Cancer Cure? -- Czech scientists may have found a method for stopping the growth of cancer cells in some tumours. A team from the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Prague has found out that tumours force surrounding cells to provide them with proteins for their growth and that by curbing that process may restrict the evolution of cancer cells. Already last year Czech scientists from the same institute have developed a substance that cuts off the access of tumours to blood.

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Gypsies Attacked -- A Romany family's home was targeted by a Molotov cocktail bomb, similar to another racially motivated arson attack that happened early 2009, which left a small girl severely burned. In this incident, the bottle landed in the bedroom of the 14 year-old Gypsy daughter, who managed to extinguish the fire before the bottle exploded.

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Staged Attack? -- Center right Civic Democrats (ODS) Senator Liana Janáčková wrote on the official website for her region that she is not convinced the attack against the Romany family was not staged so as to allow them to justify asking for asylum in Britain, on the grounds of discrimination in their homeland.

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Green Intellectuals -- Former president Václav Havel announces support for Green Party (Strana Zelení), endorsing them for parliamentary elections in May. The support was made public in a letter entitled "We Choose the Green Party", where also dozens of other intellectuals signed under a text that says Czech politics needs politicians untouched by corruption scandals. Havel had already supported the Green Party in last year's elections to the European Parliament. Current polls show the Green Party with less than the 5% margin set by law to get to parliament.

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Big Brother -- The Czech State Institute for Drug Control has been fined for violating personal data laws. They will have to pay more than 2 million Czech crowns for having collected sensitive data on patients, without their permission, besides not having stored them under appropriate privacy security. In a database originally created to spot and fight narcotics production, illegally collected data has been stored at the rate of 200 thousand doctor prescriptions per day for half a year. It is the largest ever violation of privacy laws recorded in the country.

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On Track -- Amid public controversies surrounding accusations of a homosexual clique running the Czech public transport system, the Czech Railways announced it is buying new trains in an effort to modernize their services, at a cost of 16 billion Czech crowns in the next four years. Current trains are in average 26 years old, so they will get refurbished.

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Better Late... -- The Czech Medical Chamber is officially apologizing for a document signed after the Munich Agreement of 1938, banning Jews from working in medical professions. The Czech Medical Bar Association already apologized last year for a similar wartime ban.

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Bonus Pollution -- The Czech Minister for the Environment Jan Dusík has signed a deal to sell 2.5 million carbon emission credits to a Japanese company. The Czech government has already sold more than 70 million credits, mostly to the Japanese government, but also to Spain and Austria, collecting funds that are reverted into a programme that encourages Czech households to save energy. The country has the right, under the Kyoto Protocol it signed, to emit 900 million tonnes of CO2 between 2008 and 2012, while the estimated local needs are about 17% less than that.

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Stepping Down -- Days later, the Minister for the Environment resigned, claiming a conflict with the energy giant ČEZ. Jan Dusík, who was nominated for the post at the caretaker government by the Greens, decided to resign after prime minister Jan Fischer sided with ČEZ on a dispute over the Ministry not wanting to issue permits around the modernisation of a ČEZ-run coal power plant in the town of Prunéřov.

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Grant Corruption -- Czech authorities are investigating two unnamed managers from the Southwest Regional Council for illegal distribution of EU money. One of them has already been arrested. They may have influenced public tenders that cost several billion Czech crowns and were partly paid by European Union grants for developmental projects in the new member countries.

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Not Among Us -- Resonating on the scandals involving homosexuality and pedophilia among Catholic priests and other abuses at their educational institutions, Czech Cardinal Miroslav Vlk declared that the Vatican should readdress the way priests are trained about sexual morals, calling the alleged offenses a gross violation of human dignity and an affront to God. He added that he agrees with the Holy See that celibacy is not the problem, as pointed by some Church leaders in some instances, recently. Cardinal Vlk said that in 20 years of work in his position he had never received any complaint of child abuse by any Czech priest.

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Torture Made in CZ -- Human rights NGO Amnesty International denounced Czech Republic's production and exportation of torture tools. The non-governmental organization accuses that the country makes use of legal loopholes to allow the export of equipment that is used for police repression. AI exposed that nine of the countries to which Czech Republic exports such tools are known for making use of torture.

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Gang Caught -- The Czech police caught the most prolific forgery gang in Europe, according to Czech public radio (ČRo Radiožurnál). An elderly Czech woman, her Albanian partner, a British and a Romanian are known for being part of the group, but other members may be found soon. They had forged hundreds of documents, including passports for Iranians to travel to Canada and to other Muslim persons to enter Europe. Some of their counterfeits have been found in Spain and in Britain.

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Expensive Czechs -- Labour costs in the Czech Republic grew in the fourth quarter of 2009 by more than almost any other EU country. According to a Eurostat research, the cost of work hours in Czech Republic has risen 5.4% in comparison to the previous year, behind only Bulgaria, Austria and Poland in how expensive labor is.

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Arms Deal -- The Czech Defence Ministry signed arms contracts worth over 1.23 billion crowns. Among others, were acquired 5,500 semi-automatic pistols ČZ 75, 8,000 ČZ 805 assault rifles (which will replace Vz. 58 that have been used for more than 50 years) and 600 Škorpion sub-machine guns.

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Less Beer -- Pavel Hlinka, president of the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants, informed that one in ten pubs in the Czech Republic had to close its doors last year, because of the financial crisis and increased taxes. Because of that there is an expected 4.5 percent fall in beer sales that happened last year and will be repeated in 2010.

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Gay Icon -- Civic Democrats (ODS) chairman and former prime minister Mirek Topolánek said the Church brainwashed its followers and made idiots out of the masses during a photo shooting session for gay magazine LUI and the website for the main Czech tabloid newspaper, Blesk, posted a video recording of that claim. He was upset and declared it was an abuse of a conversation he believed was informal and not public, shadowing the fact that he considers himself to have strong ties with Christianity. The premier became a gay icon after photos showing him in a full frontal exposure at Italian prime minister's Silvio Berlusconi's private villa were made public by French media and followed by outlets the world over.

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Clash of Titans -- Controversial center right Civic Democrats' (ODS) Prague mayor Pavel Bém spent the week trying to save his career in the party after supposed conspiracies transpired. He has been accused by the leader of his party, former premier Mirek Topolánek, of having been behind an intrigue that helped bring down his government coalition last year.

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In Memoriam -- Jiří Václavek, a former Social Democrat member of parliament has drowned while on vacation in Thailand. Václavek was an economist by profession and served as Czech MP from 1996 to 2006, then losing the elections for the Senate.

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To the Left -- According to the most recent poll done by agency Factum Invenio, six political parties should make it into the Czech parliament in the upcoming May general elections: Social Democrats (ČSSD) would get 27.4%, center right Civic Democrats (ODS) 23%, Communists (KSČM) 14.4 percent, TOP 09 11.8, Public Affairs (Věc veřejná) 7.8 and Christian Democrats (KDU) 6.2 percent.

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