Prague - New World Resources NV (NWR), the owner of the Czech Republic's largest coal mining company, said Thursday its net profit was up more than four times year-on-year in the second quarter of 2008 on the back of skyrocketing coal prices.
NWR more than quadrupled its second-quarter net profit from 16.2 million euros in 2007 to 71.3 million euros (105.3 million dollars) this year, according to unaudited consolidated results.
The mining company's consolidated revenues reached 513.1 million euros (757.5 million dollars) between April and June, up by 56.3 per cent from 328.2 million euros in the same period the previous year.
Prague - The Czech power giant CEZ is to build two wind- powered electricity generating farms in Romania with a combined capacity of 600 megawatts, the company said on Wednesday.
The state-controlled energy firm said that it bought assets a day earlier to build the Fantanele and Cogealac farms from the wind power developer Continental Wind Partners LLC.
CEZ did not disclose the purchase price but said it plans to invest a total of 1.1 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) in the farms, the planned capacity of which is nearly triple the size of the Europe's largest operational wind farm of Maranchon in Guadalajara, Spain.
Prague - The Czech Republic Tuesday joined the worldwide condemnation of Russia's recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, calling the move illegal, the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Czech Republic perceives this decision as an attack on the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia," the statement said.
Prague - Czechs and Slovaks on Thursday commemorated 40 years since Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring communist reform movement, which threatened Moscow's Cold War grip on eastern Europe.
Warsaw Pact troops invaded what was then Czechoslavkia in the early hours of August 21, 1968, taking control of the country and arresting the reformist leaders. Western nations denounced the crackdown but made no military move to stop it.
In the run-up to the emotional anniversary, Czech leaders and European commentators have drawn comparisons between 1968 and Russia's invasion of Georgia. So did US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Prague - The Czech police have charged two civil engineers in the case of a train crash that last week killed seven and injured more than 60 passengers, police said Friday.
On August 8, a packed international express train rammed into a road bridge in the north-eastern Czech Republic that had collapsed on the tracks seconds before.
The overpass had been under reconstruction.
The men, both aged over 50, were responsible for safety during the work on the bridge, police said.
Prague - The Czech Republic Tuesday joined the worldwide condemnation of Russia's recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, calling the move illegal, the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Prague - The Czech police have charged two civil engineers in the case of a train crash that last week killed seven and injured more than 60 passengers, police said Friday.
