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It is unfortunate that the government's decision to give a 38-billion crown loan to the IMF is dictated by internal interests rather than national interests, Martin Komárek writes for yesterday's issue of Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD).

The state attorney's office has filed charges against former transport minister and de-facto leader of the junior coalition partner Public Affairs Vít Bárta.

Inspired by Romani 'police brigades' in Decín, Sokolov Mayor Zdenek Berka said he would introduce Romani assistants to help the local police.

The Education Ministry will investigate the drawing of EU funds itself for the time being, Radek Melichar of the ministry told CTK yesterday.

Women who would like to give birth at home rather than in a hospital are entitled to a midwife covered by medical insurance, according to a landmark ruling by a Prague city court.

Czech archaeologists have found a long-lost temple from the Meroe period near the town of Vad Bon Naga in Sudan, Pavel Onderka of Prague's Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures told reporters yesterday.

The Czech Republic's approach to foreign EU nationals regarding residence permits complies with EU's principle of free movement of EU citizens, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Vít Kolár told CTK in reaction to the EC's criticism yesterday.

Prague will not be able to secure a billion-crown EU subsidy for the reconstruction of a water treatment plant, a city councilor announced yesterday.

While official sources say that the Government Office's website was down yesterday due to traffic overload, unofficial ones suggest that hackers are to blame for the blackout.

The clothing item not just for superheroes

A 51-year-old female patient committed suicide on Friday by strangling herself in a caged bed at a psychiatric hospital in Dobrany, western Bohemia, the daily Právo reported yesterday.

Students from EU member states attending Czech instututions have the right to reduced tuition in the Czech Republic owing to an intervention by Ombudsman Pavel Varvarovský.

The government yesterday gave conditional approval for the Czech Republic to join the eurozone's planned fiscal compact.

Prague's DOX contemporary art centre is currently hosting Middle East Europe exhibit.

A reasonable university reform drafted by Education Minister Josef Dobeš might get shot down as universities and the ministry mistrust each other and are unable to find common ground, economics senior lecturer Ondrej Schneider writes for yesterday's issue of Hospodárské noviny (HN).

The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) has been drafting new documents and methods that to teachers improve lessons dealing with the country's communist era.

The Senate yesterday approved an amendment to facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications of experts from EU member states who intend to work in the Czech Republic for a short time.

ODS Deputy Chairman Pavel Drobil, entangled in a suspected corruption case, will become the party's manager for the fall Senate and regional elections, Euro.cz. reported yesterday.

A new poll of voting preferences suggests that Social Democrats (CSSD) would win a general election in January, and shows a five-percent surge by the senior coalition Civic Democrat party.

Art collector Meda Mládková yesterday presented new acquisitions of 44 works by the painter František Kupka.

The new Civil Code now only requires a signature by President Václav Klaus to come into effect.

During negotiations on the fiscal discipline pact in Brussels yesterday, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said that no one in the EU understands the position of the Czech cabinet, which wants Prague's accession to the planned deal to be decided in a referendum.

People in need will receive "social cards" for drawing welfare benefits by the end of June at the latest, Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromír Drábek (TOP 09) told reporters yesterday.

The housing cooperative in Schwarzenberg, Saxony, near the Czech border, reports an unexpected rise in Czechs' interest in high-rise projects built under communism, the regional paper Chemnitzer Morgenpost reported yesterday.

Former diplomat and historian Miloš Pojar died unexpectedly on Monday, Lidovky.cz has reported.

The number of people who believe the current system promises a better future than the communist regime is at its lowest point since 1993.

The recent detention of two Czech police officers at the Baghdad airport will neither harm nor burden relations between Iraq and the Czech Republic, Iraqi Deputy PM Hussain Shahristani said at a lunch meeting with his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg yesterday.

Petr Kocí, an attorney representing a member of the far-right Workers' Social Justice Party (DSSS), has challenged the independence of another judicial expert in extremism, Ivo Svoboda, over his alleged excessive pay and disrespect for the ultra-right scene.

President Václav Klaus has attacked critics of planned higher education reforms, saying they were playing the academic freedom card insincerely.

The defence minister negotiated a treaty in Washington on Tuesday that will allow Czech companies to seek military orders in the United States.

Firefighter were called to 20,511 fires last year, almost one-fifth more than a year ago, Drahoslav Ryba, head of the Czech Fire Rescue Service, told journalists yesterday.

Czech Republic's nuclear power plants in Temelín, south Bohemia, and Dukovany, south Moravia, are not prepared for unexpected accidents, environmental activist Dalibor Stráský told reporters yesterday.

Negotiations about the sale of Czech L-159 fighter planes to Iraq continue, as no decision was made yesterday, the Government Office told CTK following Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas's meeting with an Iraqi government delegation.

The cabinet has embarked on an ambiguous path, leading the country into uncertainty and chaos by its decision that Czech accession to the EU's new fiscal pact should be decided in a referendum, Marek Švehla writes the weekly Respekt out yesterday.

Last year's national census has confirmed that Prague currently has more inhabitants than in any previous period in its history.

Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda announced in a press release yesterday that a mistake of the city council's clerk who forgot to repay the council's debt worth CZK 205,942 to a housing cooperative was to blame for the freezing of Prague's property. He said that the city council sold flats to a housing cooperative, based in Prague 6, on condition the new owner would take over all debts, including those owed by rent-defaulters. The cooperative, however, disagreed with the latter and turned to courts that ruled in its favour.

Only 16% of Czechs are satisfied with the political situation in their country, according to the latest STEM poll released to CTK yesterday.

President Václav Klaus yesterday signed an amendment to the environment impact assessment (EIA) law, thus ending a four-year dispute with the European Commission over whether Czech regulations comply sufficiently with European law.

The leadership of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) yesterday backed the view of its chairman, Prime Minister Petr Necas, that a referendum on the adoption of the EU fiscal treaty is necessary.

A court yesterday rejected the complaint against an alleged "Jewish bias" of judicial expert Michal Mazel in the case of extremist party member Lucie Šlégrová, filed by her defence lawyer Petr Kocí.

The year of Pavel Janák and Josip Plecnik will pay homage to the two outstanding architects with a series of exhibitions, lectures and educational trips.

The Czech Rectors Conference yesterday voiced protest against the way in which Education Minister Josef Dobeš (Public Affairs, VV called on Charles University Rector Václav Hampl to explain last Thursday's protest against the government's planned reforms to the higher education system.

Underage perpetrators are becoming increasingly brutal, often attacking their victims merely to have fun without any apparent reason, the daily Lidové noviny (LN) reported yesterday.

Czechs gave the best "grades" to city councils and President Václav Klaus in last year's "school report", according to a poll conducted by the polling agency STEM at the end of the year and released Friday.

Prague's Charles University (UK) Academic Senate Friday criticised Education Minister Josef Dobeš's call on UK Rector Václav Hampl to explain the protest meeting against the Higher Education Act held on 19 January.

The immunity of Czech and other European bats to the white-nose syndrome threatening the survival of North American bats might be of help in combating the fungal disease, according to Natália Martínková of Masaryk University in Brno.

The public broadcaster Czech Radio's (CRo) news station Rádio Cesko (Radio Czech), which broadcasts on the frequences of the BBC Radio for six hours a day, won't be further developed, its head Václav Sochor told E15.cz news server.

The Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) want to offer voters a new image and priorities based on traditional values before the autumn elections to the regional authorities and the Senate, KDU-CSL Chairman Pavel Belobrádek said at a party conference Saturday.

Transport Minister Pavel Dobeš (Public Affairs, VV) wants the government to discuss the renaming of Prague Airport after Former President Václav Havel at its first meeting in February, he told Czech Television (CT) yesterday.

The Swiss criminal proceeding on the suspicious privatisation of Czech coal-mining company, MUS, might return to the preparatory stage, Prague High State Attorney Stanislav Mecl told Czech Television (CT) yesterday.