Top Czech News - Prague Daily Monitor

Supreme State Attorney Renata Vesecká yesterday protested in an open letter against the comments Interior Minister Radek John has made about her and her office, which she said were based on his ignorance of basic directives of the criminal law.

Human Rights Commissioner Michael Kocáb offered his resignation yesterday but said he would quit on the day his successor is appointed in order to secure the continuity of his work.

All unemployed registered at labour bureaus should be offered a full time job and be excluded from the office's registry and compulsory social insurance would not be paid on their behalf if they rejected the job, ODS Head Petr Nečas said yesterday.

The police yesterday launched a national raid on computer pirates at the Strahov student campus and elsewhere in the Czech Republic, police spokeswoman Pavla Kopecká told ČTK.

Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg spoke about his view of the Romany issue and the repatriation of Roma from France to the Balkans during a meeting with the French president's foreign policy adviser Jean-David Levitte yesterday.

President Václav Klaus is provoking less annoyance during his second term in office and his relations with the government and the Chamber of Deputies have improved, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported yesterday.

A total of 1,435 people were treated for gambling addiction last year, almost 20% more than in 2003, according to the data of the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics.

President Václav Klaus told the Chamber of Deputies yesterday he is not an advocate of weakening ideological political competition, but that he believes in its more cultivated and mature form.

Daniel Herman, new director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, has appointed Jan Kalous, who has until now headed the institute's research section, his first deputy.

President Václav Klaus said yesterday that the Chamber of Deputies should change the status of the Constitutional Court in order to prevent it from behaving like an uncontrollable third house of parliament. Klaus criticised the court for having abolished early elections planned for last October. He also warned against a "mechanical" adoption of EU legislation.

Most deputies assessed President Václav Klaus' yesterday's speech in the lower house positively, although some disagreed with his criticism of the Constitutional Court.

Prague High Court stripped yesterday Supreme Court Deputy Head Pavel Kučera of his judge's post due to having influenced the investigation into the alleged corruption scandal of Jiří Čuněk, former deputy prime minister and former Christian Democrat chairman.

President Václav Klaus yesterday said he might start visiting the Chamber of Deputies more regularly now that the atmosphere in the lower house is better than in the previous election period.

A rift over checks of Czech drivers on the German side of the border was mended at a regular meeting of representatives of the Czech and German police presidia's representatives last week, daily Právo reported yesterday.

The Defence Ministry signed a 10-year contract with the Trade Fides company for technical guarding of two ammunition storage areas worth over CZK 1.1 billion in 2009 even though the company was suspected of corruption, Nova TV channel reported yesterday.

The Czech Republic is in an unusual situation where its government has two almost equally strong parties, one of which is up-and-coming, the other traditional and declining, Erik Tabery writes in the latest issue of weekly Respekt out yesterday.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas and the CMKOS umbrella union leaders yesterday failed to reach consensus on the government-planned reform of civil servants' base pay, Nečas and CMKOS head Jaroslav Zavadil told reporters after the meeting, adding that talks will continue.

Joint protection of bats will be discussed at a conference of the parties to the Agreement on the Conservation of Populations of European Bats (EUROBATS) that the Czech Environment Ministry has scheduled for 20-22 September.

Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg yesterday spoke about his stance on the Romany issue and the repatriation of Roma from France to the Balkans in a meeting with the French president's foreign policy adviser Jean-David Levitte.

ČSSD leader Bohuslav Sobotka yesterday demanded that Prime Minister Petr Nečas supports the ČSSD call for a special parliament session to deal with suspicious military orders.