Top Czech News - Prague Daily Monitor

Representatives of arms manufacturers oppose the closure of some Czech embassies, as decided on by the government yesterday, saying that the move may worsen foreign trade.

The government yesterday approved a national plan for the use of energy from renewable sources under which more than 13% of total national consumption should be covered by renewable energy sources by 2020, Industry and Trade Ministry Spokesman Pavel Vlček told ČTK yesterday.

ČSSD offered its former leader Jiří Paroubek the post of Czech ambassador to Austria but Paroubek rejected it, the news server iDnes reported yesterday.

The Czech military will provide 24 flight hours within NATO's Strategic Air Lift Interim Solution (SALIS) system worth CZK 30 million for the transport of humanitarian aid to the flood-hit Pakistan, the Czech government agreed yesterday.

The government of Petr Nečas and the regional governors, all opposition Social Democrats, failed to agree on budget issues yesterday, clashing over the scrapped 7.5% state contribution to EU Regional Operational Programmes.

The government yesterday decided to close down embassies in Congo, Venezuela, Kenya, Yemen and Costa Rica at the end of January 2011 as part of the Foreign Ministry's planned budget savings. The Czech general consulates in Bombay and Sydney will also be closed and replaced by offices of Czech embassies in the capitals of India and Australia. Social Democrats have criticised the steps, saying they would harm Czech export.

The Czech Environmental Inspection yesterday probed Neoma, a firm that dispatched a container that Brazilian authorities returned to Germany on Tuesday because they said it contained 22 tonnes of illegal contaminated waste.

TOP 09, a junior partner in the new centre-right government, seems united at first sight but in fact a behind-the-scenes battle for power is raging among its two rival wings, František Nachtigall writes in the editorial of the latest issue of the weekly Týden.

Plzeň's Faculty of Arts is the first faculty in continental Europe teach archaeology of modern era, i.e. of the 19th and 20th centuries.

President Václav Klaus has nominated former South Bohemia regional governor Jan Zahradník (Civic Democrats, ODS) and civic activist John Bok for ombudsman ahead of the second election.

Cities in V4 countries are doing little in comparison to their western counterparts to reduce car traffic in city centres, experts of V4's four NGOs yesterday agreed at a meeting in Prague.

Temelín nuclear power plant's Environmental Impact Assessment process was a farce that breached EU legislation and Upper Austria announced to take legal steps to have it examined by court.

Health and social care unions strongly oppose the planned lowering of base salaries for health and social workers in the public sector, threatening to go on strike. The unions are prepared to negotiate about the proposed changes with the Health Ministry and the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry. "We expect the social dialogue promised by Prime Minister Petr Nečas to take place," unions deputy head Ivana Břeňková said.

The Environment Ministry confirmed to ČTK yesterday that the 22 tonnes of illegal contaminated waste that Brazil shipped back to Germany, from where it was dispatched, originally comes from the Czech Republic.

The police will investigate the case of alleged Russian spy Robert Rachardzo, linked to Czech military senior officers, on the basis of a legal complaint against him filed by lawyer Martin Hádek, Mladá fronta Dnes reported yesterday.

Russian spy Robert Rachardzo did not only discredit the Czech military in NATO but he also developed relations with top politicians, the weekly Respekt reports in its latest issue.

More and more people are interested in "adopting" the elderly as they feel they lack contact with the older generation, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported yesterday.

ČSSD regional governor of South Moravia Michal Hašek yesterday called David Rath, regional governor of Central Bohemia, a "Kraken".

Supreme Audit Office Head František Dohnal was yesterday charged with breach of trust for living in allegedly unreasonably luxurious flats, having the state cover the high rents.

The proposed amendment to the Labour Code may take effect a few weeks later than on 1 January as originally planned, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said after meeting CMKOS umbrella trade unions head Jaroslav Zavadil yesterday.