Top Czech News - Prague Daily Monitor

The Czech-German border crossing at Hřensko was closed tonight after a rock over the road moved for a second time within a few days, the police told ČTK Tuesday, but did not specify the length of the closure.

Cuban dissident Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, who was recently released from prison, and Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (2003), will be among guests to this year's debate conference Forum 2000.

Five in nine Czech school aids for children selected at random contain a high share of toxic phthalates, show laboratory tests ordered by the Arnika civic association, Jitka Straková, from Arnika, told reporters Tuesday.

TOP 09, the junior partner in the Czech centre-right government, wants the amended Labour Code to take effect on January 1, 2011, otherwise it says the envisaged cuts in the 2011 state budget would be impossible to achieve.

The Czech Republic will seek money from the EU Solidarity Fund to cover damages caused by recent floods, PM Petr Nečas said Tuesday. The government will be discussing a joint application with Saxony and Poland.

The Education Ministry wants to launch programmes that will support the return of successful Czech researchers working abroad to their homeland and prevent talented scientists from leaving the country, the weekly Euro writes Monday.

Twenty young Comodo dragons hatched out from all 20 fertilised eggs in the Prague zoo these days.

The Czech Republic appreciates the way Latvia has coped with the serious economic crisis that hit it mainly last year, President Václav Klaus told journalists after meeting his Latvian counterpart Valdis Zatlers.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas Monday sharply protested against a number of EU countries, including the Czech Republic, not being invited to the ministerial meeting in Paris that is to discuss the transfer of Bulgarian and Romanian Roma from France.

The High Court in Olomouc Monday lowered fugitive businessman Radovan Krejčíř's sentence for a fraud with shares from 6.5 to six years in prison.

The Euro-Atlantic ties and activity in the European Union and NATO are crucial for the Czech foreign policy, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said at a meeting with Czech ambassadors Monday.

An unknown perpetrator stole a life-size statue of former Czech president Václav Havel during the Pilsner Fest beer festival in Plzeň last Saturday, police spokeswoman Hana Jehlíková told ČTK Monday.

Europe should not withdraw from Afghanistan and it should clearly say it has economic interests there, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said in an interview for the latest issue of the Austrian weekly Profil.

Unknown perpetrators have stolen two bronze tablets commemorating the 63 victims of a World War Two transport from the concentration camp in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) to Mauthausen, within three weeks, Omlenice mayor Karel Holub told ČTK.

Former Czech defence minister Jiří Šedivý, NATO secretary-general assistant, will head a 15-member team to draft a White Paper, or a new vision of the armed forces' development in the next ten to 15 years, Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra said Monday.

Fugitive businessman Tomáš Pitr remains in extradition custody in Switzerland as the Swiss Supreme Court rejected Pitr's complaint against the custody on August 25, Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli told CTK Friday.

Czech pop singer Anna K. has launched a large educational campaign called "Do you want to live like me?" in order to convince women that they should undergo in time cancer tests.

Prominent Czech scientists have called for a long-term development strategy for education and science, especially dividing of Czech universities between educational and research centres and more efficient distribution of money according to the quality of the institutions.

Fans of late US pop star Michael Jackson Friday staged a march through Prague center to commemorate his 52th birthday, signing and dancing, emulating the choregraphy of the video clip for his song Thriller.

Czech authorities Friday officially buried recently found remains of original German residents in Destne, east Bohemia.