Top Czech News - Prague Daily Monitor

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) Thursday dismissed Prime Minister Petr Nečas's statement that corruption at the Defence Ministry had appeared in the mid-1990s when Kalousek was deputy defence minister.

The Military Technical Museum in Lešany has acquired a US tank M-47 and thus completed its unique collection of all US and Warsaw Pact tanks that influenced the world military history.

Some secondary and vocational schools may be merged or abolished over declining numbers of students and some teachers may lose their jobs, daily Právo writes Wednesday, the first day of the new school year 2010/11.

inance Minister Miroslav Kalousek's ambition to personally lead the government's planned economic reforms mars Petr Nečas's effort to be a strong prime minister and it has aroused palpable tension between the two politicians, daily Hospodářské noviny writes Wednesday.

A police officer died of a fatal shooting wound in the Police Presidium's building in Prague Wednesday, criminal police spokeswoman told ČTK.

Former prime minister Mirek Topolanek Wednesday dismissed the information that he would be working for the project of the Nabucco pipeline, he told Novinky.cz.

The government coalition parties will recommend their MPs to support former constitutional judge Pavel Varvařovský for ombudsman at the lower house session 7 September, PM Necas said after a meeting of the coalition leaders Wednesday.

The government at its meeting Wednesday appointed Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) the Czech Republic's governor in the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Foreign Ministry will dismiss at least 325 people, which is about one-sixth of its employees, the ministry's press section told ČTK Wednesday.

The Defence Ministry did not plan to buy Finnish mortars for the military and the dismissed deputy minister Jaroslav Kopřiva probably acted on his own account when negotiating the order with the Patria Finnish company, ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra ordered that the military's contracts be all checked, first of all those concluded by mediators, he told journalists Wednesday.

At a meeting with Czech ambassadors Wednesday, president Václav Klaus said he can see no reason for the existence of Czech embassies in a number of small EU states, saying the EU is no longer foreign territory as such.

A new bill will allow for the permanent isolation of underage perpetrators of brutal crimes, Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil said Wednesday in Kmetiněves, a village whose residents have demanded such a legislative change due to a local murder case.

First-graders in 40 elementary schools will test this year a new script, called Comenia Script, that resembles block letters which children know from the Internet, daily Mladá fronta Dnes writes.

Czech Nuclear Safety Authority (SUJB) chairwoman Dana Drábová is likely to assume a post on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as of September, the daily E15 writes Tuesday.

Deputy Defence Minister Jaroslav Kopřiva (KDÚ-ČSL) was negotiating a kickback for an order worth hundreds of millions of crowns, iDnes.cz wrote on Tuesday, adding that daily Mladá fronta Dnes was monitoring his meetings for several months. Kopřiva was negotiating the purchase of mortars together with lobbyist Josef Jindra, iDnes reported. Both men have been dismissed and face criminal prosecution.

The coordination of the EU affairs policy cannot be entrusted to a specially appointed state secretary because Prime Minister Petr Nečas should be responsible for it under the coalition agreement, the junior ruling TOP 09 said Tuesday.

Czech secondary school students finished the best in Europe in a test of financial literacy organised by the NGO Junior Achievement along with the Citi Foundation, the two organisations' representatives have told ČTK.

Václav Kasík has resigned as the Czech Philharmonic orchestra director and Culture Minister Jiří Besser (TOP 09) launched a competition for the vacated post, Besser's secretary Stanislav Brunclík told CTK Tuesday.

The Czech police search for what may be hundreds of further mass graves of victims of post-war massacres of ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia, similar to the one recently uncovered near Dobronin, south Moravia, daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Tuesday.