Czech Republic

About 15,000 people, according to police, have again protested against the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš in central Prague. A week ago, 50,000 people participated in another demonstration, BTA quoted global agencies as saying.

The protest movement is being organized by the Million Moments for Democracy civic group, which is seeking the resignation of the prime minister. 

More than 200,000 Czechs have gathered in Prague to demand the resignation of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, France Press office reported.

The Czech prime minister is off the hook for alleged fraud — for now.

For four years, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has faced allegations that he illegally used EU subsidies to build a conference centre near Prague known as the Stork's Nest.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Sept. 3 encouraged Turkish companies to increase their investment in Czechia, formerly called the Czech Republic, especially in the construction sector.     

The EU has already frozen non-farm payments to Agrofert — one of the largest Czech recipients of EU aid — and the Czech supreme state prosecutor is looking into whether criminal charges should be brought.

Brussels is likely to levy fines and demand that past aid is repaid, meaning that either the state or Agrofert would have to bear the cost.

An estimated 250,000 people rallied in Prague on Sunday to demand the resignation of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis in the country's largest protest since the fall of communism in 1989.

Four white lions, a rare cat species, made a home in an Istanbul thematic park after carried from the Czech Republic from Turkey.

"We're defending Czechia - hard and without compromise."

The billboards of the Czech Republic's ruling ANO party for this week's election for the European Parliament show that something has gone badly wrong with the country's relationship with the EU.

Babis' pragmatic - or hypocritical - approach to the EU looks likely to serve him well when Czechs vote May 24-25. Polls suggest his party will come first with about 25 per cent of the votes.

This result is all the more remarkable, given that this essentially one-man party has no real ideology, or content in terms of policies.

It is 15 years since the EU took in eight new European nations all formerly occupied by the Red Army and in effect colonies of the former Soviet imperium. Of all the enlargements of the European Community, now Union, since the first one in 1973 to take in Britain, Denmark and Ireland, the transformation of the eight central and east European states is without historical precedent.