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Cheney stressed the US support for the Gaza operation, saying the rocket fire on Israel must stop.

Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked a diplomatic row by attacking the 'wounding and outrageous' refusal of the Czech president to fly a European Union flag from Prague Castle. The French president sided with federalist Euro-MPs who are engaged in a bitter feud with Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president and a Eurosceptic. Senior MEPs, including the president of the European Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, caused a diplomatic incident ten days ago after demanding that Mr Klaus hoist the European flag over his residence during bad tempered talks in Prague. "It was a wound, it was an outrage to see that flags had...

TAJI — The Czech contingent, Senior Iraqi and Coalition partners gathered at the Iraqi Army Armor School here Dec. 4 to mark the Czech Republic end-of-mission and to recognize the Czechs for their work training and advising the Iraqi Army. Czech Republic Army Maj. Frantisek Grmela commanded 14 Soldiers who served as trainers and advisors to the IraqiArmy Armor School at Taji for the past six months. Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq TAJI — The Czech contingent, Senior Iraqi and Coalition partners gathered at the Iraqi Army Armor School here Dec. 4 to mark the Czech Republic end-of-mission and...

PRAGUE (AFP) – Central Europe's top power producer, Czech-based CEZ, is pinning hopes on the financial crisis to thwart the approval of the EU's green package, saying it would hit hard at the region's coal-dependent industry. The EU's climate-energy package seeks to raise the share of renewable sources in power production by 2020, boost energy savings and tighten the rules for trading in CO2 emission permits in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Martin Roman, CEZ chairman and chief executive, said in an interview with AFP that a "yes" vote on the package from EU members in the region...

via translation - ALERT - Pakistan: the Czech ambassador was killed PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's ambassador to Pakistan, which had called for help from the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad shortly after the attack Saturday, died Sunday announced in Prague public television CT 24.

LONDON, Sept. 19, 2008 – The United States and the Czech Republic signed agreements today that will allow the United States to build a limited ballistic missile defense system to protect Europe from missiles fired from Iran or other rogue nations. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Czech Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanova signed the status of forces agreement that will allow basing of U.S. forces in the Czech Republic and a declaration on strategic defense cooperation between the two nations. Gates is here for a NATO defense ministers meeting. The Czech Republic will host a U.S.-built radar that will protect...

Czech Muslims complaining about Islamophobia Prague Daily Monitor, Czech Republic - 9 hours ago ... Sept 8 (CTK) - Muslims living in the Czech Republic complain about a "steep increase in islamophobia, anti-Arabism and anti-Muslim moods" in the Czech ...

PRAGUE (AFP) - An express train crashed into a collapsed road bridge in the Czech Republic on Friday killing at least six people and injuring 31, rescue services said. The train was travelling at about 140 kilometers (85 miles) an hour when it hit debris and derailed near Studenka in the northwest of the country, said a Czech railways spokesman. The locomotive and six passenger carriages came off the tracks and were left a mass of twisted metal. There were about 400 people on the train at the time, including a large group heading for a music festival in the...

Last week the Archive of the Czech Security Forces posted data on the internet compiled by former Czechoslovakia’s military counter-intelligence. The data lists some 140,000 names of people who were either monitored by the military counter-intelligence or were agents, and it hasn’t taken long for the files to stir controversy. Czech TV reported that five of the country’s MPs, including Social Democrat and former Olympic ski jumper Pavel Ploc, were among those listed. He and the other deputies reacted quickly, denying cooperation of any kind with the Communist intelligence service, saying they were now considering legal action in response. The...

FOB SHANK, Afghanistan (July 10, 2008) — Czech soldiers mentored and trained Logar Police Academy cadets at an Afghan national police compound, here, recently. The Czech soldiers have an ongoing mission of training 36 cadets, who will become Afghan national police officers upon graduation from the academy, July 17. Coalition soldiers actively support the Afghan national security forces by training the ANP. The police academy, led by a U.S. Police Mentoring Training team, cooperates daily with Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team Logar soldiers at FOB Shank, Logar province. These efforts focus on training the Afghanistan national auxiliary police to become members...

Compare that relatively small $2.7 million in federal aid to the $310 million originally set aside for a U.S. radar base project in the Czech Republic. It’s totally unjustified to fund unproven missile technologies and radar bases in foreign countries while U.S. roads, bridges, dams, levees and tunnels are in dire need of repair. As Czechs and Americans see U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech officials sign off on a document signaling the acceptance of the Czech government to the installation of a radar tracking system on Czech soil, there are more than a few ironies worth noting.

National Security: Russia's threat to target Prague in response to our missile defense deal with the Czech Republic shows why such a security system is needed and why Barack Obama should not be president.Russia on Tuesday reacted to the signing of a formal agreement to locate U.S. missile defense radars in the Czech Republic with bluster reminiscent of the Cold War. "We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods," its Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The radars are designed to work with missile interceptors to be stationed in Poland to intercept nuclear-tipped missiles launched...

PRAGUE (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed a bilateral missile defence agreement in Prague on Tuesday allowing a US tracking radar on Czech soil. Washington wants the radar, twinned with interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland, to counter the threat of an attack from "rogue" states such as Iran.

A MOTHER is accused of partially skinning her caged son and feeding it to relatives. Kalra Mauerova, 31, of Brno in the Czech Republic, wept in court as she admitted torturing her son Ondrej, and his ten-year-old brother, Jakub, The Sun reported. Ms Mauerova, a member of the Grail Movement cult, caged Ondrej for months while relatives, also members of the cult, ate his raw flesh, a judge heard yesterday. The court in Brno heard the family sexually abused the boys and made them cut themselves with knives.....

"Stolen Kosovo" Documentary Censored in Czech Republic: Suffering of Kosovo Serbs Cannot be Shown on National TV That there can be no freedom of expression under the dictatorial regimes was confirmed yet again by the state-owned Czech TV, supposedly a "public service" which took part in the financing of the Vaclav Dvorak's documentary "Stolen Kosovo" prior to Czech Government's recognition of the mafia state on Serbian territory, but now, after their FM announced recognition of the fake state, refused to air it. According to the Czech daily Aktualne, the representatives of the state television justify their refusal to show the...

24 May 2008 | 22:42 | FOCUS News Agency Prague. President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus is ‘ashamed’ of the decision of the right-centrist government to acknowledge the independence of Kosovo, AFP reports. The government of PM Mirek Topolanek officially recognized Kosovo on Wednesday, three months after the state declared its independence. As a result, Serbia recalled its ambassador to Prague. ‘It is not a secret and I could not accept the recognition of Ksovo’, Kaus said before the media.

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 – The NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has made significant progress in the country despite the command being “under-resourced,” the alliance’s top officer in the country said today. In a conference call with defense experts from his headquarters in the Afghan capital of Kabul, U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill also said opium poppy cultivation continues to be a major threat to Afghanistan. “In some portions of the country right now, mostly in the south, the cultivation of poppy is a far greater threat to the Afghan government -- to the security and stability...

01.04.2008] - Talking Point - Dominik Jůn The Czech Republic and Tibet Several weeks ago, the Czech Republic raised eyebrows by celebrating the International Day for Tibet with particular enthusiasm. Politicians hung the Tibetan flag from government offices, and ministers showed open support for the plight of the Tibetan people. The event is usually regarded as little more than an act of symbolism. But this year, following the subsequent unrest in Tibet, this region, for sixty years part of China, has again come under the spotlight. Ondřej Liška For China, which is hosting the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer, these events...

China cancels official Czech visit in Tibet flag row AFP[Saturday, April 05, 2008 10:53] PRAGUE - China cancelled a visit by Czech education officials because Prague's government ministry raised a Tibetan flag in one of its windows, Chinese authorities said in a statement released here. "The displaying of the so-called Tibetan flag signifies direct support for the independence of Tibet," said the statement from the Chinese education ministry, released by China's embassy in Prague on Friday. "We cannot accept it and that is why we have cancelled this visit." The delegation to Beijing was to have been led by a...

Prague - For years, Poland was the European Union's prickliest post-communist nation. Now that role seems to be shifting to the Czech Republic, its smaller neighbour. With strong support for missile defences in Eastern Europe and a unilateral deal for Czechs to travel visa-free to the United States, the Prague government is on track to overtake Poland as the region's top US friend. "Most people expected that the Czech Republic will progress towards Europe and Poland against it," said Piotr Kaczynski, an analyst at the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies. "Now it is the other way around." By securing...