Top Czech News - Prague Daily Monitor

The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) head Ivan Hodač will be Prime Minister Petr Nečas's secretary of state for the EU, respect.ihned server and Lidové noviny write Thursday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes the Czech cabinet's austerity measures and efforts aimed at budget consolidation, she said after meeting Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas in Berlin Thursday.

One of the suspected perpetrators of the late-May 1945 massacre of 15 German civilians near Dobronín where the victims' grave has been uncovered these days, is still alive, detective Michal Láska told Hospodářské noviny.

The cabinet Wednesday approved a draft amendment to the law on foreigners' stay that introduces residence permits with biometric data and employers' co-responsibility for foreign employees.

Social Democrat senator Vladimír Dryml wants to run for party chairman at the ČSSD election conference in March 2011 because he is dissatisfied with the situation in the party, he told ČTK Wednesday.

The portion of Czech employees on sick leave has been the lowest since the early 1960s in 2009, with only 4.2% of the employees paying sickness insurance being officially ill on average, according to the latest data from the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS).

A three-metre-tall wooden cross has been erected, probably by local people, at the site of the alleged grave of 15 German civilians who were reportedly massacred near Dobronín in late May 1945, which the police started uncovering on Monday.

Unified school-leaving exams will be introduced at Czech secondary schools in spring 2011 under the proposal of Education Minister Josef Dobeš that the coalition government approved Wednesday.

The Czech military will deploy the first four Pandur armoured personnel carriers (APC) in the foreign mission in Afghanistan this autumn, General Staff spokeswoman Jana Růžičková told ČTK.

Foreigners from other European Union countries who have permanent residency in the Czech Republic will have the right to participate in the local elections due on October 15-16.

The Czech police and customs officers announced Wednesday that they had detained 21 Vietnamese on suspicion of growing marijuana for sale in neighouring countries. The gang was able to produce 1,400 kilograms of the drug a year valued at around CZK 100 million. Twelve of them face up to 18 years in prison, if found guilty. The remaining nine, who worked as growers at the marijuana farms, face up to 10 years behind bars.

The Environment Ministry has not confirmed to ČTK the media information about the Czech origin of the tonnes of hazardous waste that the Brazilian authorities uncovered in the port of Rio Grande.

Herman Volf, former Czech top-level athlete who has been wheelchair-bound for four years after a skiing accident, has fulfilled another of his dreams when he covered 664 kilometres from Prague to Banská Bystrica, central Slovakia, on a "handbike".

PM Petr Nečas's future adviser Roman Joch will recommend to Nečas that he abolish the Human Rights Commissioner Office that is headed by former human rights minister Michael Kocáb, Joch said on Czech Radio Wednesday.

An expedition prepared in Brno will follow the traces of Czech and Slovak legionaries who returned home from Russia in a complicated way in the years following World War One, Jan Kux, one of the participants, has told ČTK.

The two Indian elephants who expect young in the Ostrava zoo are undergoing special training for their delivery to be smooth and successful, zoo keeper Pavel Zvolánek told reporters, adding that simultaneous pregnancy of two elephants is the zoo's international success.

The Prague City Hall Tuesday supported the controversial plan to build a camp for homeless people and introduce their registry, councillor Jiří Janeček (ODS) told journalists.

It is embarrassing that former Czech defence minister Martin Barták, whose name is linked to dubious military orders worth billions of crowns, has become deputy finance minister responsible for fighting money laundering, daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) writes Tuesday.

President Václav Klaus is convinced that the current government's austerity measures are necessary, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said after a meeting with Klaus Tuesday.

The Czech police have proposed that František Dohnal, head of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ), be charged over the alleged use of unreasonably luxury flats for state money, Stepanka Zenklova, spokeswoman for the City State Attorney's Office, told CTK Tuesday.