A federal court in Alexandria, US, has ruled in favour of extraditing Kevin Dahlgren to the Czech Republic where he is wanted on suspicion of four counts of murder. The twenty-year-old is suspected of having killed four of his Czech relatives with whom he was spending the summer. He fled to the US shortly after the family was murdered in their home in Brno and was arrested on an Interpol warrant at Washington Airport. The court said the evidence against Dahlgren presented by Czech investigators was convincing. The defense has a week to appeal the verdict.
The Citizens’ Rights Party–Zemanites’ is torn over the nomination of controversial political “lobbyist” Miroslav Šlouf to head the party’s Prague ballot in October’s general elections. The announcement that Mr. Šlouf had been approved as the party’s Prague leader was followed by denials and conflicting reports from party insiders throughout the day while the party leadership remained tight-lipped and called off a planned press briefing on Thursday night. While insiders suggested the controversial lobbyist’s nomination was a PR stunt to raise the party’s profile ahead of the elections, Mr. Šlouf himself said he had accepted the nomination in good faith and was ready to serve the party.
One-time chief political advisor to President Miloš Zeman, Miroslav Šlouf is a highly controversial figure – a former communist believed to have enormous influence and connections to the underworld who has been linked to many political scandals and shady deals. Although he is credited with Mr. Zeman’s election victory, the president has publicly distanced himself from his former advisor.
Czech and Slovak police have charged at least 19 people suspected of match-fixing and illegal betting in Czech and Slovak soccer leagues and summoned more than 20 others for questioning. Twelve of the players charged with bribe taking are from the Czech Republic. A group of Slovaks reportedly masterminded the match-fixing and illegal betting scam both here in the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia. According to the Slovak police president the group fixed at least 19 matches, among them top-league games, dividing over 200,000 euro among Czech and Slovak players.
The centre-right TOP 09 has launched an election campaign in defense of parliamentary democracy. Among the party’s stated priorities are curbing the powers of the president, setting a time-frame for the adoption of the euro and boosting the role of education and culture in society. The party also wants to encourage greater civic and individual responsibility, including measures to curb excessive smoking, drinking and overeating.
Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka has said that if his party does well in the elections, he would try to arrange a one-party minority government with support from other parliamentary parties, including the Communist Party. Mr. Sobotka said his party was not considering scrapping the 1995 Bohumin party conference resolution which bans direct cooperation with the communists on the national level, but that it would seek support from those with whom it could agree on a common policy programme – jump-starting economic growth, creating new jobs, and scrapping direct fees for health care, among others.
Prague’s Bulovka hospital suffered a cyber attack on Wednesday night. A spokesperson said the hospital’s patients’ data base was not violated but the central information system was switched off for close to 8 hours, necessitating the transfer of some cases to other hospitals. The hospital has filed a criminal complaint against unknown culprits.
The Prague Transport Company has refused a delivery of four new trams from the Skoda Transportation Company due to a series of technical faults, the ctk news agency reports. The company said the trams had serious defects which prevented them from being put to use. It said it had been forced to return trams with similar defects in the past. Skoda Transportation has a contract to deliver 32 new trams to Prague Transport this year. The company has failed to comment on the development.
The number of dollar millionaires in the Czech Republic is up by 5 percent and has reached 18,000, according to the firm Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management. Their wealth rose by 5,4 percent reaching 42 billion dollars. One million US dollars currently amounts to 19.4 million crowns.
Psychologists say an increasing number of young Czechs suffer from Internet Addiction Disorder. One percent of children aged between 11 and 14 and two percent of teenagers between 15 and 18 have been diagnosed with IAD. Psychologists from the Bohnice mental institution say that children with other problems frequently fall prey to Internet Addiction Disorder as a means of escaping reality.
U.S. Open doubles champion Radek Štěpánek will face Argentina's Juan Monaco in the opening singles of the Czech Republic's Davis Cup semi-final on Friday as the defending champions bid to reach a third final in five years. World number five Tomáš Berdych will then take on Argentine Leonardo Mayer in the second of the opening day's matches in Prague.
The coming days should be partly cloudy to overcast with rain in places and day temperatures between 15 and 19 degrees Celsius.
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