PRAGUE (AP) — Elections in the Czech Republic this weekend are expected to leave the European Union with yet another euroskeptic government in Central Europe.
Although the country boasts one of the European Union's fastest-growing economies and lowest jobless rates, voters are fed up with corruption and with the unpopular center-left Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's prime minister has condemned the president's rejection of European Union sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
President Milos Zeman spoke Tuesday in Strasbourg, repeating his stance against the sanctions by saying they don't work. Zeman suggested they should be replaced with a dialogue that might result in some compensation for Ukraine from Russia. He also called Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula irreversible.
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic has opened a new office focused on preventing cyberattacks.
The Czech National Cyber and Information Security Office is based in country's second-largest city, Brno (BIR-no.) It employs 118 people for now, but officials say the staff could grow to 400.
The office's official opening on Tuesday comes as public institutions and businesses have reported a growing number of attacks.
PRAGUE (AP) — Czech President Milos Zeman has used his power to pardon a man convicted of a double contract murder.
Jiri Kajinek was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998 for the murders he committed in 1993. Kajinek pleaded not guilty.
Tuesday's release of the 56-year-old was criticized by some politicians and legal experts but a majority of the public seemed to agree, according to a recent poll.
PRAGUE (AP) — Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka rejected a proposal for a new finance minister on Monday, prolonging a political crisis centering on the Republic's finance minister.
Sobotka had asked President Milos Zeman to fire Finance Minister Andrej Babis, one of the country's richest people, over unexplained business dealings. Babis has denied wrongdoing and says he won't resign.
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech presidential office said President Milos Zeman's latest shot at the media was a joke. Politicians and journalists just don't seem to get it.
Before meeting Russia's president Sunday in China, Zeman commented on the presence of journalists, telling Vladimir Putin that they were too numerous and they should be "liquidated." Putin countered that it could be enough to "reduce" them.
Their conversation was captured by a television microphone and posted on social media.
PRAGUE (AP) — Tens of thousands of people rallied on Wednesday in the Czech Republic's capital and other major cities against President Milos Zeman and Finance Minister Andrej Babis.
The protesters gathered at Wenceslas Square in downtown Prague demanded Babis' firing and Zeman's resignation in the latest development of the Czech political crisis.
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's prime minister has backtracked about resigning along with his government, saying Friday that he instead wants to solve a political crisis by firing his finance minister.
PRAGUE (AP) — It's no secret that Czech President Milos Zeman is not a fan of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
But what happened on Thursday surpassed anything that had happened between them in the past and shocked the country.
PRAGUE (AP) — Czech leaders met with President Milos Zeman on Wednesday in efforts to resolve a political crisis triggered by the prime minister's decision to resign with his government over the business dealings of the finance minister.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka announced the resignation on Tuesday, saying the minister, billionaire businessman Andrej Babis, had not allayed suspicions that he avoided paying taxes.
PRAGUE (AP) — Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says it is a key issue for his country to maintain the same rights for EU citizens in Britain after its exit from the European Union.
Sobotka spoke on Wednesday after a rare meeting of the chairmen of parliamentary parties from the ruling coalition and the opposition, who agreed on the country's common position ahead of the EU's exit negotiations with Britain.
Some 40,000 Czechs are estimated to live in Britain.
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's foreign minister says that a successful hacking attack on his email account and the accounts of dozens of ministry officials took place for months.
Lubomir Zaoralek says that the breach was discovered on Jan. 16, but declined to give any further details about the amount of the data stolen, their content or who was behind the attack.
PRAGUE (AP) — Iran's foreign minister visited the Czech capital of Prague to talk business Friday, including the development of a nuclear program after the sanctions against his country were lifted.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's visit comes just six months after the head of Iran's nuclear program met Czech leaders in May to discuss developing bilateral nuclear cooperation.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hungary's prime minister urged the European Union on Friday to make security a priority and build an army of its own.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke in Warsaw before heading into talks on EU's future with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of three other central European nations. The talks, in preparation for an EU summit next month, focused on security concerns and migrants.