News | All stories

The oldest Czech to have served as a soldier in World War I, Alois Vocasek, died on Saturday at the age of 107, the website euro.cz reported on Wednesday. At the time of his death Mr Vocasek was attempting to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights, saying he was wrongfully imprisoned after World War II for collaborating with the Nazis. Alois Vocasek, who was born in 1896 near Kolin, married for the fourth time at the age of 97.

Union representatives and representatives from Skoda Auto in Mlada Boleslav have been meeting to discuss the future of several dozen workers whose jobs are being phased out at Skoda's Kvasiny plant. The streamlining comes in response to an overall reduction in the number of manufactured luxury sedans, known as the Skoda Superb, which the plant currently produces. While Skoda has offered its Kvasiny workers relocation to its Mlada Boleslav plant interest remains low even though the workers could lose their jobs entirely. Skoda spokesman Jaroslav Cerny said talks are likely to continue throughout the week. However, it remains unclear whether a consensus will be reached: some Kvasiny workers have complained relocation to the Boleslav plant would require living away from home, while others have expressed dissatisfaction with the offered wages.

The Atlantik financial group, which bought up debts held by the Czech Republic's largest travel agency Fischer Travel just over a week ago, has yet to reach agreement with the Allianz insurance company over insurance coverage for the travel agency's three leased passenger jets. Allianz spokesman Milan Kana made the announcement on Tuesday, saying talks would continue. Meanwhile Atlantik has declined to comment. The Allianz insurance company cancelled the travel agency's contract in late July over unpaid debts, meaning that unless a new contract is renegotiated, the Fischer agency's planes will only be allowed to fly until the end of August. The Atlantik financial group is reportedly negotiating to pay off several million crowns in debt and to have a new contract extended as of September.

The defence minister, Miroslav Kostelka, has brought three seriously ill Iraqi children to the Czech Republic for treatment. The three, aged one, ten and twelve, were taken from the minister's plane to Prague's Motol hospital as soon as they landed late on Thursday night. Another eight Iraqi children and a young woman are also due to come to this country for treatment. Minister Kostelka had been in the southern Iraqi city of Basra for a one-day visit.

President Vaclav Klaus announced on Thursday he was once again recommending lawyer Ales Pejchal to become a judge of the Constitutional Court. Mr Pejchal, whose candidacy was rejected by the Senate, was recommended only one day after the Senate also rejected three of four other candidates proposed by President Klaus. Only Civic Democrat senator Dagmar Lastovecka was successful in Wednesday's Senate vote. The other candidates, lawyers Vladimir Balas, Vaclav Pavlicek, and Klara Vesela-Samkova, did not receive a majority approval. Mr Pejchal was rejected by the Senate in July.

Out of nine candidates for Constitutional Court judges, the Senate has so far approved only five. Two of the five, Vojen Guettler and Pavel Hollaender, had been Constitutional Court judges in the previous term already. The other three approved judges come from parliament. They are former Justice Minister and ex-senator Pavel Rychetsky, former senator Dagmar Lastovecka and former MP Miloslav Vyborny.

President Vaclav Klaus has started sending the first letters announcing his rejection of requests for pardon, the Presidential Office press department said on Thursday. The Presidential Office has received over 400 requests for pardon, and Mr Klaus has so far settled dozens of them. Vaclav Klaus, elected president in February this year, has radically changed the method of decision-making on pardons. While his predecessor Vaclav Havel, often criticised for granting too many pardons, had consulted the Justice Ministry on them, and in some cases the Justice Ministry even decided itself, Mr Klaus says he wants to decide himself as the pardon is not a legal act correcting a court decision but a special act by the head of state.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has said that rescuers led members of an ill-fated Czech climbing expedition to safety on Thursday after one man died on a volcano on the eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. The nineteen remaining members of the Czech group were recovering after a three-day ordeal on the Klyuchevskoi volcano. The rescuers climbed the volcano again to retrieve the body of a 44-year-old man who died after he was hit on the head by a falling rock last Monday. The Czech group was unable to move the fatally injured man and waited in thick fog for help.

The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has been awarded the Canada Order, the supreme Canadian distinction, as the only foreigner among 109 winners this year, Canada's Governor General Adrienne Clarkson says on her website. The information was confirmed for the CTK news agency by Mr Havel's office and the Canadian Embassy in Prague. Ms Clarkson, who is Canada's de facto Head of State representing the British Queen Elizabeth II, plans to hand over the decorations late this year.

A Czech mountaineer has died after his climbing party hit bad weather on a volcano in Russia's far east. Officials said the man had apparently died of head injuries. The man, who has not been named, was part of a group of 17 Czech climbers who became stranded on the Klyuchevskaya volcano. He died before a Russian team of rescuers was able to reach him. Four climbers are still trapped on the mountain, while the remaining 12 have returned safely to base camp. The party was climbing in Kamchatka, a peninsula jutting out into the Pacific Ocean and home to some of the world's most spectacular active volcanoes.

Meanwhile nine Czech mountaineers who were stranded at their base camp in Tajikistan because of bad weather are said to be safe and well. One of the climbers developed frostbite and has received medical attention. The climbers were cut off from the outside world for several days.