Free Republic

Welcome to Liberland, population 250,000…and anyone else looking for a tax haven. A self-professed Libertarian politician from the Czech Republic says he has created a new, sovereign country on the Croatian-Serbia border where citizens decide their own tax burden, property and individual rights are respected and the national motto is "Live and Let Live."

Czech President Milos Zeman has said the US ambassador is not welcome at his Prague Castle residence, reports say. The apparent snub follows remarks by US envoy Andrew Schapiro seen as critical of the president's decision to attend forthcoming World War Two commemorations in Moscow. Several world leaders are boycotting the ceremony over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict. Mr Zeman is considered more sympathetic to Russia on the issue. The US embassy has declined to address Mr Zeman's comments.

Prague - The first part of the U.S. military convoy, comprising 37 vehicles, crossed the Czech-German border in Rozvadov, west Bohemia, before 10:00 today, heading for the Vilseck base in Bavaria, 70 km of the border. [....] Some 500 soldiers on around 115 armoured vehicles crossed the Czech Republic during the "Dragoon Ride" to demonstrate support for the allies' countries that feel threatened by the Russian aggression in Ukraine. They returned from an exercise within the Atlantic Resolve operation in the Baltics to their base in Germany, crossing six countries of Eastern and Central Europe, including the Czech Republic.

Czech cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek, who was nominated for Oscar twice and cooperated with Czech-born director Milos Forman, died on Saturday evening at the age of 80, Martha Issova, partner of his son David, told CTK today. Ondricek is famous in the Czech Republic and abroad primarily for his cooperation with Forman in Czechoslovakia and in the United States. Both film-makers are leading personalities of the Czech New Film Wave of the 1960s.

A priest who witnessed a miracle in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1940s was tortured and beaten to death for refusing to recant what he’d seen. And now Catholics from the country are honoring his heroic virtue and pushing for him to be recognized as a martyr. At a recent gathering in Číhošť commemorating the priest’s brutal death, his current successor at the parish church says he’s grateful for efforts to overturn the decades-long silence on atrocities against Catholics in the 20th century. “Naturally, I am glad that the issue of Father Josef Toufar is starting to be resolved in which...

Fans of the British comedy group Monty Python perform their skills during the International Silly Walk Day on January 7, 2015 in Brno, Czech Republic. Around 50 participants in costumes presented the Silly Walk, based on a sketch from the Monty Python troupe. PHOTO | MICHAL CIZEK | AFP BRNO, Czech Republic Nicole Schickova adjusts her unruly fake moustache, as crucial to her outfit as her bowler hat, and takes two comical giant steps, thrusting her leg up as far as it will go, before dragging her rear foot over. The 24-year-old's Austrian friend, also in moustache and hat, shuffles...

Amongst the findings were shoes and photos hidden by Jewish prisoners of the Holocaust. PRAGUE - House owners rebuilding their attic in the Czech town of Terezinhave found photos, shoes and other possessions of Jews forced into a ghetto there under Nazi rule, a heritage project said on Thursday. Terezin (Theresienstadt), a fortress and garrison town built at the end of the 18th century, was used by the Nazis as a transit camp for Jews rounded up in Czechoslovakia and deported from elsewhere in Europe. They were held in the ghetto until they could be transported to camps farther east....

Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, has branded American beer as “filthy water” during a business summit in Kazakhstan but US brewers needn’t pay too much attention. During the trip, Kazakhstan’s long-running president, Nursultan Nazarbaev (who has run the country since 1989), asked Zeman (pictured above) which beer he thought was the best in the world. According to Reuters Zeman replied that, “Czech beer is the best in the world. No American company that offers filthy water instead of beer can compete with us.” Zeman is used to controversial and often profane statements, the 70-year-old even calling Russian protest...

The Czech defense minister says his country does not want to host foreign NATO troops on its soil, as part of plans to beef up the alliance’s eastern wing in light of the Ukraine crisis in contrast to some other eastern European countries like Poland. Martin Stropinsky, the Czech defense minister, has said his country is not in favor of any foreign troops being based in his country, even though they would only come at Prague’s invitation, Reuters reports. “We know well how any permanent stationing (of troops) is still a problem. I belong to a generation that experienced the...

The annual Česká Miss (Czech Miss) pageant selects the Czech Republic's representatives to participate in the major international beauty contests, i.e. Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss Earth...... And LOOK who the guest judge was!!! More/video at Reaganite Republican... ______________________________________ pics: Ceska Miss

The West should take strong action, possibly including sending NATO forces to Ukraine, if Russia tries to annex the eastern part of the country, Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday. "The moment Russia decides to widen its territorial expansion to the eastern part of Ukraine, that is where the fun ends," Zeman said in a broadcast on Czech public radio. "There I would plead not only for the strictest EU sanctions, but even for military readiness of the North Atlantic Alliance, like for example NATO forces entering Ukrainian territory," Zeman said. Pro-Russian protesters seized state buildings in three east...

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PRAGUE -- The Czech Foreign Ministry has used strong words to condemn the discovery of illegal weapons at the Palestinian embassy complex where a possible booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador. In a Monday statement, the ministry says it considers it "a serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations." It says it expects the Palestinians to "clearly and unequivocally" explain the incident...

The Palestinian ambassador to Prague, Jamal al-Jamal, was killed in an explosion at his residence on Wednesday in an incident which Czech authorities believe was likely an accident. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said ambassador Jamal was trying to open a safe that had been recently moved to his new home when the blast occurred. A Czech government source told the Reuters news agency that the explosion was probably caused by a faulty security device on the unit. It was unclear what that was. Some safes can be fitted with mechanisms designed to destroy secret documents in the event of the...

Many world leaders have said they wouldn't miss Nelson Mandela's funeral for anything, but Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok isn't among them. Rusnok's conversation with Defense Minister Vlastimil Picek in parliament on Friday was broadcast by the Czech public television news channel. When Picek reminded him that President Milos Zeman might be unable to fly because of a knee injury, Rusnok reacted with a vulgar term. Addressing his companion by the Czech equivalent of "dude," Rusnok said: "I'm dreading that I will have to go."

Not that I'm knocking their quality-control or anything... 'Miss Aerobik 2013' Jana Šimičková. Check-out the BRUTAL competition at Reaganite Republican... (sfw unless you work with some real kooks-  just a few innocent bikini shots)

As parliamentary polls get under way in the Czech Republic this week, artist David Cerny has floated a huge purple statue of an extended middle finger down the River Vltava in Prague. The outsized purple hand has been mounted on a barge floating on the river. It is pointed at Prague Castle, the seat of President Milos Zeman. Mr Cerny has shocked and mocked politicians and public figures in the past, says the BBC's Rob Cameron. This latest piece is clearly his message to the leftist President Zeman and the political party recently set up by his supporters, our correspondent...

By a narrow vote, Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus was charged with treason and impeached by the upper house of the Czech parliament on Monday. President Klaus’ term as leader of the Czech Republic is scheduled to end on Thursday. According to Reuters, the house voted 38 to 30 during a closed session to bring charges against the Czech Republic President. The Senate’s decision refers Klaus to Constitutional Court to determine if he acted against the constitution while granting amnesty to some 7,000 prisoners and halting high-profile prosecution cases in January. Czech Republic President Klaus ordered the amnesty for prisoners...

The Czech Senate voted on Monday to accuse the outgoing president, Vaclav Klaus, of high treason. The vote was a largely symbolic rebuke of Mr. Klaus, a vociferous euroskeptic who has often polarized Czech society. The decision to forward a treason complaint to the country’s Constitutional Court was prompted by an amnesty granted by Mr. Klaus on Jan. 1, freeing more than 6,000 prison inmates and halting the prosecutions of some prominent business executives and officials who were charged with fraud. Czechs across the country, which has grappled with endemic corruption since it overthrew Communism in 1989, reacted with anger,...

In Czech Republic, a leading presidential candidate has a full-face tattoo File this under, “Things that could never happen in America.” That man is Vladimir Franz, a Czech composer who is tattooed from head — and face — to toe, and he’s third in the polls in the Czech Republic’s presidential election, which is going on Friday and Saturday. This is the first time Czechs will directly elect a president — a mainly ceremonial position because the prime minister largely runs the country. Since the breakup of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic has had two presidents, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus,...