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Prague, May 15 (ČTK) — The latest developments in Ukraine have stepped up the activities of Russian agents in the West, including the Czech Republic, which is an extremely interesting target for Russian spies, daily Lidové noviny (LN) writes today. "It is no secret that the Czech Republic is an extremely interesting destination for the Russian services," Karel Randák, former head of the Czech civilian counter-intelligence, is quoted as saying. "A large Russian community lives here, and there are interesting investment opportunities here," he added. "Whenever they succeed in proving we are not a firm link of the EU and NATO, it is a...

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...

Plzen - The five-day Liberation Festival that celebrated the end of World War Two and the arrival of the U.S. army in Plzen on May 6, 1945 ended with a commemorative event at the memorial to the American troops. The speakers at the event, who included Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Senate chairman Milan Stech, also talked of Ukraine and warned against a military conflict. Sobotka said the former Czechoslovak communist regime tried to suppress the memories of the liberation of Plzen by U.S. soldiers. He noted that Czechoslovakia was also liberated by Russian, Polish and Romanian troops. Sobotka told...

Czech police say they have arrested a man for publishing an Islamic book that allegedly promotes racism and violence. Spokesman Pavel Hantak […] said the book allegedly spreads racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and violence against “inferior races.” Police and the state prosecution declined to give the book’s name, saying they don’t want to promote it by naming it. …

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...

Researchers have found we have an inbuilt ability to tell how intelligent a man is just by looking at them. The team from the Czech Republic found people we unable to perform the same deduction on women. The team admit they are baffled as to how we do it - and say it does not appear to be based on symmetry of the alignment of features. Both men and women were able to accurately evaluate the intelligence of men by viewing facial photographs, they discovered. 'Faces that are perceived as highly intelligent are rather prolonged with a broader distance between...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With a few strokes of his pen, Vladimir Putin has in recent days both created the Republic of Crimea and annexed that new entity into the Russian Federation, thereby violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine. To hear Putin tell it in his address to the Duma, this action is not only perfectly legal, it also rights a historical wrong in which Russia was “robbed” of its rightful claim to the Crimean peninsula in 1954. President Obama has disputed the legality of these actions, observing that “President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed Andrew Schapiro as the new ambassador to the Czech Republic.... Like the present ambassador to Prague, Norman Eisen, Schapiro stands close to Obama. They studied together at the Harvard University ....

According to the President Milos Zeman what would solve the economic crisis in the Crimea was the federalization of Ukraine and strengthening the autonomy of the peninsula. The head of state on Thursday during a visit to Olomouc Region also said that everything would be much easier if there was not a precedent of Kosovo. "We believe that the solution would be generally the federalization of Ukraine, and in this federalization strengthen the autonomy of Crimea, which already exists because of Crimea has its own parliament and its own government. This crisis would have been far less severe if there...

The Palestinian Authority has officially apologized to the Czech Republic over weapons that were recently discovered in the Palestinian mission in Prague. Czech authorities discovered 12 weapons and explosives inside the mission after a blast killed Palestinian ambassador Jamal al-Jamal earlier this month. The PA Foreign Ministry and Czech police said at the time the explosion occurred when Jamal opened an old safe. The Palestinian Maan news agency said the PA Foreign Ministry sent a letter of apology to the Czech government concerning the weapons and explosives that were found inside the mission compound. The agency said the PA ministry...

Welfare spending in Britain has increased faster than almost any other country in Europe since 2000, new figures show. The cost of unemployment benefits, housing support and pensions as share of the economy has increased by more than a quarter over the past thirteen years – growing at a faster rate than in most of the developed world. Spending has gone up from 18.6 per cent of GDP to 23.7 per cent of GDP – an increase of 27 per cent, according to figures from the OECD, the club of most developed nations. By contrast, the average increase in welfare...

Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg are the only EU countries where citizens approve the European Union’s leadership with a clear 50% majority, according to a recent poll by Gallup. Approval ratings in nearly all other member states have dropped dramatically since 2008, especially in the crisis-hit south. The approval of the EU leadership is lowest in Greece (19%), Cyprus (21%) and Spain (27%), according to Gallup poll released on Wednesday (8 January). Other countries with critically low approval ratings include the United Kingdom (29%), Sweden (30%) or the Czech Republic (30%). The EU is still backed by a majority of...

Question: What happens when you forcibly implement an overly ambitious plan to overhaul your entire energy infrastructure by ridding yourself of both nuclear power and coal, instituting on outright ban on hydraulic fracturing and hence natural-gas exploration, and relentlessly subsidize politically preferred forms of so-called “green” energy that investors and consumers aren’t choosing to use of their own volition?Answer, via Bloomberg: Across the continent’s mining belt, from Germany to Poland and the Czech Republic, utilities such as Vattenfall AB, CEZ AS and PGE SA are expanding open-pit mines that produce lignite. The moist, brown form of the fossil fuel packs...

The Prague district hosting the embassy of the Palestinian Authority wants it moved after the ambassador was killed in a mysterious explosion this past week, local officials told AFP on Friday. "We asked the Czech foreign ministry for the embassy to be moved out of our district," Petr Hejl, senior councilor of Prague's Suchdol district, said. "The district feels betrayed by the behavior of diplomats who kept weapons and explosives at the embassy, violating Czech and international law," he told the news agency. Police said they found unregistered weapons at the PA’s diplomatic mission, but would not elaborate on the...

Dogs have been found to be sensitive to Earth's magnetic field, and apparently align themselves along the magnetic north-south axis before they defecate. Czech and German researchers studied 70 dogs during 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations over the course of two years, and found that when the Earth's magnetic field was stable the dogs chose to align themselves with it. When it was unstable, such as during a solar flare, the dogs would become confused.

‘No explosive device on safe that killed Palestine envoy’  Published — Friday 3 January 2014 Last update 3 January 2014 1:06 am PRAGUE: A safe that exploded at the Palestinian residence in Prague, killing the ambassador, was used almost daily for storing cash, and embassy staff were not aware of any explosive safety device in it, the embassy spokesman said on Thursday. Czech police on Wednesday ruled out what they called a “terrorist attack” and said the likely cause was that a safety device that was part of the safe blew up and fatally wounded Ambassador Jamal Al-Jamal. However,...

A large, illegal weapons stockpile was found Thursday at the home of the Palestinian ambassador in Prague, Jamel al-Jamal, Czech media reported, a day after al-Jamal was killed in an explosion there. Respekt, a Czech weekly newspaper, reported that the arsenal was enough to arm a unit of ten men. […] Channel 2 News reported that the stockpile included heavy firearms, that it was held illegally, and that its existence had not been previously known to the Czech authorities. …

The Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the Czech Republic has died of wounds sustained in an explosion which rocked his house in the capital Prague. Jamal al-Jamal was rushed to hospital in a serious condition following the explosion, which apparently occurred as he was opening a safe or container of some kind. Contrary to initial reports that his family were unharmed despite being in the building at the time, it has been confirmed that al-Jamal's wife was also hurt in the blast. A spokeswoman for Prague Emergency Services told CNN that the 57 year-old ambassador has been taken to Prague military...

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...

A Palestinian diplomat has been killed by an explosion at his home in the Czech capital Prague. Jamal al-Jamal, the head of the Palestinian mission, had been taken to hospital after the explosion but died of his injuries some four hours later. Palestinian officials said the blast happened when Mr Jamal was moving a safe. Czech police say there is no evidence that it was a planned attack. ... Mr Jamal had only recently moved into the property. Palestinian officials have been quoted as saying the blast took place when Mr Jamal attempted to move a safe from an old...