Union Européenne : Le Traité de Lisbonne validé, le président tchèque se retrouve isolé
Vaclav Klaus. Crédits photo : Le Temps
LE TEMPS: La Cour constitutionnelle tchèque a jugé mardi le Traité de Lisbonne conforme à la Loi fondamentale du pays, condition nécessaire à la ratification complète du traité et au choix du futur président de l’Europe. Ne reste plus maintenant qu’une ultime étape: la signature du texte par le très eurosceptique chef de l’Etat tchèque, Vaclav Klaus, qui pourrait apposer son paraphe dès aujourd’hui comme il a promis de le faire. Contraint et forcé.

Matinée de souffrance pour Vaclav Klaus. Résolument opposé au Traité de Lisbonne, qu’il continue de considérer comme une menace contre la souveraineté des Etats-membres de l’Union européenne, le très eurosceptique président tchèque va devoir le signer, contraint et forcé après sa validation mardi matin par la Cour constitutionnelle. Une décision très attendue qu’il s’est d’ailleurs bien gardé de commenter. >>> Richard Werly | Mardi 03 Novembre 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Czech President Vaclav Klaus signs EU Lisbon Treaty into law: Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, has signed the EU Lisbon Treaty into law after a court cleared the final legal obstacle standing in its way. >>> Bruno Waterfield, Brussels Correspondent | Tuesday, November 30, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Tories on the spot as Czech leader signs Lisbon Treaty >>> Philippe Naughton and Philip Webster, Political Editor | Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Vaclav Klaus Says It Is 'Too Late' to Stop Lisbon Treaty
THE TELEGRAPH: The Lisbon Treaty has taken another step towards becoming law across Europe after the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, effectively abandoned his attempts to stall it.

Mr Klaus, the sole remaining leader in the European Union not to have signed the document, conceded that despite his personal opposition to the treaty, it was now too late to stop it.

He also dismisssed speculation that he would try to hold off formally signing the document after the forthcoming British general election next year. Such a move would pave the way for a future Conservative government to hold a referendum on the treaty, which could derail the entire plan if it delivered a "No" vote. But Mr Klaus said: "I will not and cannot wait for the British election. They would have to hold it in the coming days or weeks."

In an interview with Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny, he added: "I do not consider the Lisbon Treaty to be a good thing for Europe, for the freedom of Europe, or for the Czech Republic.

"However, the train has already travelled so fast and so far that I guess it will not be possible to stop it or turn it around, however much we would wish to."

Mr Klaus, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, had won plaudits from fellow Eurosceptics for his staunch criticisms of the treaty, which he fears will usher in a European federal state that will curb the sovereign rights of smaller countries like the Czech Republic.

In past speeches, he has drawn comparisons between post-Lisbon Europe and the grim life of Czechs during Soviet rule, likening distant diktats from Brussels to those from Communist apparatchiks in Moscow. >>> Colin Freeman | Saturday, October 17, 2009

I Will Not Sign Lisbon Treaty, Says Czech President
Vaclav Klaus: the last man holding out. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: The President of the Czech Republic has no intention of signing the Lisbon treaty, a move that might allow David Cameron time to hold a British referendum on Europe.

President Klaus, the fiercely Eurosceptic Czech leader, is the last obstacle for the agreement after its ratification in the other 26 EU states but he has told supporters that he will never sign, The Times has learnt.

Asked during a walkabout on Sunday not to put his name to the treaty, Mr Klaus replied: “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

After a crisis Cabinet meeting yesterday, Jan Fischer, the Czech Prime Minister, avoided a direct confrontation with Mr Klaus, bowing to his demand to reopen negotiations with the EU on an eleventh-hour opt-out.

However, he called on the unpredictable President to guarantee his signature if EU leaders agreed to his conditions and if the Czech Constitutional Court raised no new objections.

Mr Klaus is demanding an opt-out for the Czech Republic that would prevent German families expelled after the Second World War from lodging property claims at the European Court of Justice.

He raised the stakes on Friday, putting a dampener on EU celebrations over the Irish referendum decision to back the treaty. The President argued that the charter could whip up an avalanche of property claims from German families expelled from Czech territory after the war. >>> David Charter, Europe Correspondent, in Prague | Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Lisbon Treaty Delayed Again as Klaus Wins Czech Tussle
Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: The crisis over the final signature on the Lisbon Treaty deepened today when the Czech Government backed away from a confrontation with the country's President, Vaclav Klaus. and instead pledged to negotiate for an 11th hour amendment on his behalf.

After an emergency Cabinet meting this morning, Jan Fischer, the Czech Prime Minister, said that he would put President Klaus's call for a human rights opt-out to the next European summit on October 29.

The climbdown represented a victory for Mr Klaus, the last man holding out on signing the treaty after its ratification in the 26 other EU states, and shows clearly that the Czech Government has no stomach for a fight with the eurosceptic economist.

It also leaves open the possibility that the Czech ratification could drag on into next year, allowing time for David Cameron to win a general election in the UK and call a referendum on the document.

The decision will throw the problem back at EU leaders at a meeting they had hoped would finally celebrate the completion of the treaty. >>> David Charter, Europe Correspondent, in Prague | Monday, October 12, 2009

Tories Face Lisbon Referendum Turmoil as the Czechs Vow to Ratify EU Treaty by New Year
MAIL ONLINE: The Czech Republic will ratify the Lisbon Treaty before the New Year, the country's prime minister promised today.

In a move that could derail Conservative Party plans to hold a referendum on the EU agreement if they win power at the general election next spring, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said the country will not derail the long-awaited reform treaty.

The Czech Constitutional Court is studying a complaint against the treaty and the Eurosceptic Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, has not yet signed it.

Lisbon cannot take effect unless all 27 EU countries ratify it. All but the Czech Republic and Poland have done so.

Mr Fischer was speaking after talks in Brussels in the wake of the Irish 'Yes' vote last weekend.

One man holds the key - eurosceptic Czech president Vaclav Klaus, whose signature is required to complete full ratification of the treaty.

He says he is waiting for the outcome of a treaty challenge lodged with the constitutional court by a group of Czech senators.

And Mr Fischer, who has little sway over his president, said procedures were being speeded up.

After a treaty meeting by video conference with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, he said: 'Everything is in place for the treaty to be ready and implemented by the end of this year. >>> | Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Melanie Phillips: If Cameron Doesn’t Stop Blair Being Shoehorned as EU President, There’ll Be No Point in Him Becoming Britain’s Prime Minister
MAIL ONLINE: By the end of the Tory party conference, which starts today in Manchester, it would come as no surprise to find that Jerusalem had been replaced by the Czech national anthem.

It appears that David Cameron is sweating on the Czech Republic to help him escape from the biggest dilemma he faces.

Now that the Irish people have had their arms twisted to deliver the required 'yes' vote on the EU's constitutional Lisbon treaty, a deeply unwelcome ball has been bounced into Cameron's court.

He has promised that Britain would hold its own referendum on the treaty - but only if it has not been ratified by every other country, and thus is not in operation, by the time he comes to power.

Ireland's 'yes' vote increases the likelihood that it will be in operation by the next General Election. Only the Poles and Czechs now stand in its way.

The Poles are said to be likely to roll over soon; the Czech constitutional court is considering whether the treaty is consistent with Czech law.

If the Czechs say no, Cameron is off the hook. The big question, however, is whether Cameron will hold a referendum if the treaty has been ratified. He ducked it again yesterday.

The Irish vote has changed nothing, he protested. Well, nothing - and everything.

Yesterday, Tory Euro-federalists and Eurosceptics were trading blows about this even before the conference had properly started.

However, those who are calling for the referendum pledge to be honoured, even if the treaty is in force, fail to acknowledge that it would not be possible to renounce the treaty at that point because it would have turned into the constitution of Europe.

Notoriously, Cameron merely says that if the treaty has already been ratified the Tories 'will not let matters rest there'. What on earth does this mean?

If he is seriously suggesting that he would then try to repatriate certain powers to this country as he has pledged to do, he is being - to put it politely - disingenuous.

The EU constitution that the treaty brings into being cannot be undone or unpicked.

As Cameron desperately tried to shut this issue down yesterday, he was in danger of thus giving the impression that he did not grasp why Europe is indeed an issue of overriding importance.

If this constitution comes into force, the EU will be changed, unalterably and for ever, into a wholly new entity: a 27-nation superstate with no democratic legitimacy which will nevertheless rule our lives - and, in all probability, with Tony Blair as its President.

It would be beyond intolerable if, at the very moment that the British electorate finally voted out the government he led and consigned Blairism to the bin, the man who did so much damage to Britain as its Prime Minister should be shoehorned into a post which makes him the effective ruler of this country.

For if this constitution comes into effect, Britain and the other EU member states will no longer be self-governing nations.

Foreign policy, defence, social, economic and welfare policies, immigration, internal security - every national interest will be subordinated to this new anti-democratic entity.

As such, 'President' Blair would be committing the single most treacherous act of all towards his own country - taking away its own democratic power of self-government.

And as a zealot whose aim has always been to supersede the nation state by trans-national bodies which promise the arrival of the brotherhood of man, we can be sure that 'President' Blair would make full use of the despotic powers of the EU constitution to impose upon us all a frightening degree of uniformity and control.

So David Cameron would have defeated Labour only to find himself once again being ruled by Tony Blair. >>> Melanie Phillips | Monday, October 05, 2009

Václav Klaus, the second President of the Czech Republic. Photo: Google Images
EU's Push for President Post Faces Hurdle: After Ireland's Approval of Lisbon Treaty, European Leaders Begin Effort to Win Over Adamantly Opposed Czech President
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: DUBLIN -- Backed by Ireland's resounding approval of a treaty designed to strengthen the European Union and give it a full-time president, leaders of the bloc said they would start a drive to remove the last remaining hurdle to the so-called Lisbon Treaty -- the refusal of Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign it.

Ireland's 67% to 33% vote for the treaty Friday was a huge turnaround, reversing Irish voters' veto last year. The change of heart appears to have been driven mainly by the dramatic collapse of Ireland's economy, which made voters less willing to risk weakening the bloc.

For EU leaders who have been struggling for nearly a decade to pass versions of the treaty, it was a huge relief. They hope the scale of the victory will help them to persuade Mr. Klaus, a committed euroskeptic who has refused to sign the Czech legislature's ratification of the treaty, to back down.

Swedish Prime Minster Fredrik Reinfeldt and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said over the weekend they would meet Wednesday with the Czech Republic's prime minister to add pressure on Mr. Klaus. Sweden, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is also dispatching its European-affairs minister to Prague.

Mr. Barroso said he was also ready to accept names from the 27 EU countries of their representatives on the commission, the union's executive arm. Terms of the current commissioners end this month, and the process of replacing them had been delayed until the fate of the Lisbon Treaty became clear.

"We start already on Monday to start to push every head of state" to sign the treaty, said Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and head of the European Parliament's liberal wing.

Ireland alone held a popular referendum on the treaty; the others ratified it through their parliaments. The process is now incomplete in two countries: Poland and the Czech Republic, which need their presidents' signatures.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has said he would sign it as soon as Irish voters approved it, though his office gave no details on timing in a statement Sunday.

Mr. Klaus is another matter. The Czech president has never hidden his disdain for the EU, and he has a hero's status among treaty opponents across Europe. >>> Charles Forelle. Alistair MacDonald, Sean Carney and Malgorzata Halaba contributed to this article. | Monday, October 05, 2009

Exclude God at Your Peril, Pope Warns Czech Republic’s Non-believers
TIMES ONLINE: An estimated 120,000 church followers waited yesterday for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI at an airfield in the southern Czech city of Brno, the centre of the country’s Roman Catholic heartland.

Although the Vatican had said that it was hoping for as many as 200,000, it is expected to be the largest turnout of the Pope’s three-day trip to the overwhelmingly secular Czech Republic.

Speaking next to a 12m steel cross, the 82-year-old pontiff warned that modern societies excluded God at their peril. “History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions,” he said, adding that technical progress was not enough to “guarantee the moral welfare of society”. >>> Foreign Staff | Monday, September 28, 2009

Far Right Is the Centre of Attention
SCOTSMAN: CLAD in black trousers, waistcoats and caps, the Hungarian Guard stand to attention and pledge to defend their nation.

Then, in scenes reminiscent of Europe's dark past, they march with flags and banners flying, hoping to be the trailblazers of a Hungarian nation reborn.

The guard, the uniformed wing of the small political party Jobbik, are also the vanguard of a resurgent and confident extreme right wing, aiming to make gains across central Europe in next month's European parliament elections.

Jobbik – short for Movement for a Better Hungary – aims to scoop 10 per cent of the national vote as polls across the continent open from 4-7 June.

In the Czech Republic, the National Party shocked the country when it offered a "final solution to the gypsy problem", while its larger counterpart, the Workers' Party, has few qualms about sending its "security brigades" into neighbourhoods dominated by gypsies, or Roma – a group which is often a target.

Ondrej Cakl, an expert on the Czech far right, said a few years ago, Workers' Party meetings attracted only a couple of dozen, but now they attract hundreds.

In Romania, one party urges "Christians and patriots to rid the country of thieves". In Austria, the powerful Freedom Party, led by Heinz-Christian Strache, has high expectations from June's vote: last September, it took 17.5 per cent of the vote in national elections, and experts predict it will make significant gains on the 6 per cent it won in the last European elections.

Across the continent, the far right could well win more than the 25 seats it needs to form a bloc in the European Parliament and secure about £1 million in annual funding. >>> By Matthew Day in Warsaw | Monday, May 25, 2009

Czech Far-right Party Linked to BNP Runs Euro Election TV Ads Demanding 'Final Solution' to Gypsy Problem
Nick Griffin. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: A far-right party in the Czech Republic, which has links with the BNP, has caused a storm by calling for a 'final solution to the gipsy [sic] issue'.

The Nazis used the term as a euphemism for the mass slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust.

The National Party in Prague made the call in a TV ad for the European Parliament elections next month.

The camera panned over dishevelled and dirty-looking Roma women and children, before a voice-over said 'we call for final solution to the gipsy issue'.

There were also slogans on screen such as 'Stop black racism', 'No favouring of gipsies' and 'We don't want black racists among us'.

Czech extremists routinely refer to Roma people as blacks. The Czech government has expressed outrage over the broadcast and pledged that it will not be repeated.

BNP leader Nick Griffin spoke last year at a rally of the National Party, which is also anti-immigration and anti-Muslim.

In his speech he railed against the accession of Turkey to the EU, saying that the introduction of millions of Muslims into the EU would 'drive down wages, living standards and increase taxes'. >>> By Allan Hall | Friday, May 22, 2009

Brussels Committed to Turkey's EU Membership
MONSTERS & CRITICS: Brussels - The European Commission, as well as the current and future presidencies of the European Union, on Tuesday reiterated their support for Turkey's entry into the EU, despite resistance in France and Germany.

'The European Commission is committed to the EU accession process of Turkey ... on the basis of the negotiating framework that was adopted by all (EU) member states and Turkey in October 2005,' said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn after talks in Brussels with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

While conceding that Turkey faces a long and difficult journey, Rehn stressed that Turkish membership 'is in the fundamental interest of the EU.'

Rehn's comments were echoed by the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency, and by Sweden, its successor.

'We will continue to work on the programme that was laid out together by the French, Czech and Swedish presidencies,' said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who singled out peace talks in Cyprus as 'the single most important issue this year.'

The comments in Brussels came less than 10 days after the leaders of Germany and France both questioned the wisdom of allowing Turkey into the EU. >>> © Deutsche Press Agentur| Tuesday, May 19, 2009

REUTERS: Czechs Hope Turkey's EU Bid Will Progress Before July

BRUSSELS - The Czech EU presidency said on Tuesday it hoped to open at least one more negotiating area in Turkey's slow-moving EU entry bid by the end of its term on June 30.

Turkey, meanwhile, did not make clear whether it was linking the energy area of the negotiations -- which is currently being blocked by its rivalry with EU member Cyprus -- to signing a deal on a major pipeline project with the EU.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was asked after talks with EU officials in Brussels when Turkey expected to sign its commitment to the Nabucco pipeline project and what he expected from Europe in return.

He said Nabucco was a strategic project for Turkey and it would do all it could to see it realised.

A European Union with Turkey as a member would be in a much better position from the perspective of energy security. >>> Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jon Hemming | Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Czech Republic Pays for Immigrants to Go Home
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Unemployed Guest Workers and Their Kids Receive Cash and a One-Way Ticket as the Country Fights Joblessness

Prague -- During its manufacturing boom earlier this decade, the Czech Republic wooed immigrants with plentiful jobs and comparatively higher wages. Now the Czech government is paying them to go back home.

Four years ago, Uyanga Ganbold migrated from Mongolia to Plzen, an industrial hub 60 miles south of Prague, with dreams of a European education for her two children. But she lost her job assembling Panasonic televisions and is taking the government's offer of a one-time payment of €750 ($992), triple her monthly wages. "I've never held that much money in my hands all at once," said the petite 34-year-old before leaving in mid-April.

Trin Van Pham is a harder sell. The Vietnamese immigrant lost his factory job with Czech auto maker Skoda in December, but turned down a similar package to leave. "It's just a little bit of money," compared with the $11,000 debt he took on to get here, says Mr. Pham, 30. Besides, he says, "if I go back, I'll also be looking for a job. It's not easy to get one there."

Their reactions underscore the difficulties of unraveling the global work force this once labor-strapped nation created as it grew into a manufacturing hub. In 2007, foreigners scooped up nearly 40% of the new jobs created in the Czech Republic. In the last five years alone, the number of immigrant workers doubled to nearly 362,000 by the end of 2008.

With demand for exports down, unemployment has soared to a two-year high of 7.7%. Economists say the rate could hit 10% by year's end, and there are signs rising joblessness is pushing some Czechs to apply for the low-wage work they once left to foreign laborers. The Czech economy is set to contract by 2% this year -- a sharp fall from a growth peak around 7% in 2006.

In February, the government, fearing crime, homelessness and immigrants overstaying visas, launched a $3 million program to pay newly jobless migrants to go home. The pitch: €500 per legal immigrant, €250 for children under 15, and the cost of the tickets home. >>> By Joellen Perry | Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Czechs Pay to Send Foreign Workers Home
THE TELEGRAPH: The Czech government has offered to pay thousands of unemployed foreign workers to go home.

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Under the programme, which is costing just £2 million, the Czech state will pay for a one-way air or rail fare and provide 500 euros (£440) in cash to any foreign worker who wants to go home and can prove that they have been laid off from a legitimate job and have no means of support.

Ivan Langer, the interior minister, explained that if the scheme proved popular with migrant workers then he would ask the government to extend it beyond an initial eight-month period.

The Czech Republic's once booming economy attracted thousands of migrant workers, who flooded into the country from afar a field as Mongolia and Vietnam to work in flourishing sectors such as the car industry and construction.

Conservative estimates now put the number of foreigners working in the Central European country at 300,000, and that they now represent 6 per cent of the Czech workforce.

But with the small country reeling from the global recession, unemployment in January rose to a 21-month high of 6.8 per cent, and migrant workers are expected to bear the brunt of the lay-offs. >>> By Matthew Day in Warsaw | Monday, February 23, 2009

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BAE Systems Executive 'Questioned over Alleged European Bribery'
THE TELEGRAPH: A senior BAE Systems executive has been arrested and questioned by the Serious Fraud Office over suspected bribery to win lucrative arms contracts, it has been reported.

Julian Scopes, the company's former head of government affairs, was interviewed by SFO officers at Guildford police station on Sunday, according to the Financial Times.

Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, a Viennese count who worked as a consultant for BAE, was arrested, questioned and bailed by investigators on the same day, having been intercepted en route from Vienna to his Scottish mansion. His lawyer told the FT he denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Scopes declined to comment, the FT reported, adding that the SFO said a 55-year-old man was arrested and interviewed on suspicion of corruption before being released on police bail to appear next year.

Mr Scopes, 55, who is also a former private secretary to the late defence minister Alan Clark, worked at the Ministry of Defence for more than 20 years before joining BAE Systems.

After taking up the role of head of government affairs, he was responsible for smoothing out dealings between the company and the MoD and other government bodies. He was made head of the company's Indian operation last month.

The interviews came as part of an international investigation into suspected bribes of high-level officials in countries including Austria and the Czech Republic. Officers raided a number of properties in Britain, Austria and Hungary last month. >>> By Jon Swaine | October 23, 2008

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Fraud Investigators Raid BAE Agent's Austria Home
THE GUARDIAN: Serious Fraud Office investigating allegations of bribery and money laundering

British investigations into BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, appear to have revived today after it was disclosed that a key BAE agent has been raided.

Investigators from the Serious Fraud Office arranged for the agent, Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, to be raided in Austria.

Austrian prosecutors said the raids were carried out at the request of the SFO investigating allegations of bribery and money laundering.

The Austrian police seized a quantity of documents from the home and office of Mensdorff-Pouilly, who has been accused of receiving millions of pounds from BAE for promoting deals. He is the Viennese laird of a Scottish castle.

The SFO's investigations into BAE have been controversial as the government stopped its inquiry into Saudi arms deals. Critics have alleged that the government is soft on BAE and has placed the company above the law and effectively made it immune from prosecution - an accusation denied by ministers. Fraud Investigators Raid BAE Agent's Austria Home >>> Rob Evans | September 30, 2008

REUTERS:
RPT-Austria Raids Lobbyists in Jetfighter Bribery Probe >>> | September 30, 2008

WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Police Look for Bribery Evidence in Case Against BAE >>> By David Crawford and Daniel Michaels | October 1, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
Austrian Addresses Visited in BAE Serious Fraud Office Probe: Police in Austria have visited a number of addresses as part of a UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into claims that defence company BAE Systems was involved in bribery to secure aircraft contracts in the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The police visited the Austrian home and office of Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, a lobbyist who owns a castle in Perthshire.

The SFO is thought to have asked the Austrian authorities for help with its continuing probe into the defence company. The lobbyist's lawyer, Harald Schuster, said any allegations of wrongdoing were groundless.

Despite abandoning its investigation into BAE's dealing with Saudi Arabia, the SFO has continued to look at the company's defence contracts in other countries, including South Africa and Tanzania. >>> By Russell Hotten | October 1, 2008

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Czech Republic National Party Screens Fitna
PRAGUE DAILY MONITOR: Hradec Kralove, East Bohemia, April 15 (CTK) - The Czech extra-parliamentary extremist National Party (NS) presented the controversial anti-Islamic film Fitna of Dutch ultra-right MP Geert Wilders in Hradec Kralove Tuesday.

Over 20 people attended the screening.

On this occasion, Pavel Sedlacek from the NS pointed to the alleged danger of Islamisation and he mentioned demonstrations in the Czech Republic and abroad against it.

Only several people took part in the debate. One of them said problems with the Islamisation of society should be solved on the official level.

"You must call on politicians to start dealing with it," he said.

Sedlacek objected that one cannot rely on politicians in this respect. National Party Screens Anti-Islamic film >>> By ČTK | April 16, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
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Brave Geert Wilders Gets Offer from Right-Wing Party in the Czech Republic to Host His Fitna Website
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The Web site for an anti-Koran film being made by Dutch right-wing lawkmaker Geert Wilders was suspended over the weekend by its US hosting service. But a far-right party in the Czech Republic has offered to screen it if Wilders can't find another outlet.

A far-right political party in the Czech Republic has offered to show a Dutch lawmaker's anti-Koran film if it is banned in the Netherlands.

The offer came after a US Internet hosting service suspended on Saturday the Web site promoting "Fitna," the 15-minute film far-right politician Geert Wilders says he is making.

In the Netherlands, where Wilders leads the reactionary Freedom Party, the film has sparked demonstrations even before its release.

Thousands demonstrated in central Amsterdam against the film Saturday in a protest intended to show that Wilders does not represent the whole country.

The American Internet company, Network Solutions, released a statement Saturday saying it had suspended the promotional Web site until its sponsor could show the plans for the site did not violate the company's standards.

"Over the last month, Network Solutions received a number of complaints," read the statement. "We are still waiting to hear from our customer. In the interim, we have temporarily suspended the site."

The site formerly showed the film's title, "Fitna," the text "coming soon," and an image of a gilded Koran. Now it shows a note that the site is under investigation.

The Czech Republic's small National Party offered to release the film on the Internet using one of its servers, in a message posted Sunday on its Web site. Czech Party Offers to Show Anti-Islam Film >>>

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Sex Offenders in the Czech Republic Have to Guard Their Nether Regions!
BBC: A European anti-torture watchdog has expressed "serious reservations" about surgical castration being used to treat sex offenders in the Czech Republic.

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture also expressed concerns about the use of chemical castration, and called for greater safeguards.

The Council of Europe committee questioned the freedom of consent for those undergoing the procedure.

The Czech government says castrations happened in accordance with the law. Czech castration raises worries (more) By Alex Kroeger

Mark Alexander