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☆ Floods claim two more casualties as torrential rain batters central Europe
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

One person drowned in southwest Poland and thousands were evacuated across the border in the Czech Republic after heavy rain continued to batter central Europe on Sunday, causing flooding in several parts of the region. Rivers overflowed from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday, after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure system named Boris. Some parts of the Czech Republic and Poland faced the worst flooding in almost three decades as towns evacuated thousands. That surpassed a record seen in heavy flooding in 1997, which partly damaged the town and claimed 56 lives in Poland. In Romania, authorities said the rain was less intense than on Saturday, when flooding killed four and damaged 5,000 homes.

Persons: Werner Kogler, ”, Mirek Burianek, Donald Tusk, ” Tusk, Pavel Bily, “, Gergely Karacsony Organizations: Austrian, ” Police, Firefighters, Local Locations: Poland, Czech Republic, Europe, Lower Austria, Vienna, Glucholazy, Czech, Stronie Slaskie, Rivers, Romania, Lipova, Prague, Jesenik, Klodzko county, Klodzko, Poland’s Nysa, Nysa, Budapest, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Towns

☆ 'True European': Former top Czech diplomat Schwarzenberg dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

PRAGUE, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, one of the leading figures in the country's post-Communist era, has died, officials said on Sunday. Schwarzenberg was born into a prestigious Czech family and became a senior aide to his friend Vaclav Havel after the former dissident won the country's first free election in 1990. He later served twice as foreign minister between 2007 and 2013. The Vaclav Havel Library, which Schwarzenberg co-founded, said he died on Saturday, calling him a "patriot and true European". Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on X that Schwarzenberg was an "unwavering advocate" of democracy and the European idea.

Persons: Karel Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, Vaclav Havel, Miroslav Kalousek, Havel, Alexander Schallenberg, Milos Zeman, Jason Hovet, Jan Lopatka, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: Vaclav Havel Library, Communists, Television, Foreign Ministry, Austrian, Thomson Locations: PRAGUE, Czech, Europe, Vienna, Czech Republic, Schwarzenberg, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Central European

[1/3] Writer Milan Kundera is pictured in Prague, former Czechoslovakia, May 6, 1963. CTK Photo/Frantisek Nesvadba via REUTERSPRAGUE, July 12 (Reuters) - Czech-born writer Milan Kundera, author of the novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" who lived nearly five decades in Paris after emigrating in disillusionment from his Communist-ruled homeland, has died at the age of 94. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Kundera was "a writer and a voice that we will miss". "Milan Kundera's work is at the same time a deep, human, intimate and distant exploration," she said. Fellow Czech writer Karel Hvizdala told Czech Television he saw his friend last November and he was already in poor health.

Persons: Milan Kundera, Frantisek Nesvadba, Kundera, Petr Fiala, Petr Pavel, Pavel, Elisabeth Borne, Milan, Karel Hvizdala, Albert Camus, Daniel Day, Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Philip Kaufman, Timothy Garton Ash, Monde, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Czechoslovakia's, Jan Lopatka, Robert Muller, Elizabeth Pineau, Tassilo Hummel, Michael Kahn, Jason Hovet, Toby Chopra, Kevin Liffey, Mark Heinrich, Nick Macfie Organizations: CTK, REUTERS, Moravian, Prague Spring, Czech Television, Czechoslovak Communist, New York Times, Oxford University, Paris Mayor, Czechoslovakia's Communist, Thomson Locations: Prague, Czechoslovakia, REUTERS PRAGUE, Czech, Paris, Brno, France, Communist Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak, Europe, Central Europe, French, Western

☆ Retired general Pavel leads in poll ahead of Czech presidential vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PRAGUE, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Retired general Petr Pavel held a 15 percentage point lead over billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis heading into a Jan. 27-28 presidential run-off vote, a Czech Television poll showed on Saturday. The poll showed Pavel leading with 53% compared to 38% for Babis with 9% undecided. The expected turnout could hit 84% in the poll next weekend, the highest ever in a Czech presidential vote, the survey found. Pavel, 61, is strongly pro-Western and supports further military aid for Ukraine as well as adoption of the euro. Pavel started his military career in the 1980s and enrolled in a military intelligence training course, which he completed after Communist rule collapsed.

"It always rains a lot here, it's very cold and it's January and it feels like summer," said Bilbao resident Eusebio Folgeira, 81. French tourist Joana Host said: "It's like nice weather for biking but we know it's like the planet is burning. Scientists have not yet analysed the specific ways in which climate change affected the recent high temperatures, but January's warm weather spell fits into the longer-term trend of rising temperatures due to human-caused climate change. "The record-breaking heat across Europe over the new year was made more likely to happen by human-caused climate change, just as climate change is now making every heatwave more likely and hotter," said Dr Friederike Otto, climate scientist at Imperial College London. French national weather agency Meteo France attributed the anomalous temperatures to a mass of warm air moving to Europe from subtropical zones.

☆ Big Czech crown interventions less likely, central banker says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Czech Crown coins and notes are seen in this picture illustration taken April 1, 2017. In July, the Czech National Bank (CNB) used 10 billion euros ($10.35 billion) of its massive international reserves to support the crown. Intervention amounts eased to 2.6 billion euros in September, according to bank data. Interventions have kept the crown in a tight range and on the strong side of 24.78 since they started. The CNB’s reserves dropped to 131.6 billion euros at the end of October, or about 48% of expected 2022 gross domestic product, from 160.4 billion euros seen in April.

☆ CEZ seeks higher capacity at Dutch LNG terminal, wants damages from Gazprom
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PRAGUE, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Czech power utility CEZ is in talks to raise the capacity it has booked at a new Dutch liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, Chief Executive Daniel Benes said on Czech Television on Sunday. Benes said CEZ would also seek damages from Russia's Gazprom for failing to meet its contract obligations in gas supplies. CEZ has booked 3 billion cubic metres per year in LNG import capacity - about a third of Czech annual consumption -- at the new Dutch LNG terminal at Eemshaven, and has started receiving first shipments through there. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"We are in talks on an increase in the Netherlands," Benes said. He said CEZ would seek damages, which he said in the order of hundreds of millions to low single billions of crowns, through arbitration.

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