Daily news summary

Archaeologists remove remains of presumed Přemyslid princes

Prague archaeologists have removed the nearly 1,000-year-old remains of what are thought to be Přemyslid princes from the St. Stephen's cloisters in Olomouc.

It is believed that among the interned skeletons were those of Ota I, the Prince of Olomouc from 1061 until his death, and his wife Euphemia, a daughter of King Béla I of Hungary.

Researchers discovered a number of coffins at the Olomouc site only last year, and comprehensive testing has yet to be carried out.

Charges against Dutch nationals uprgraded to attempted murder

The charges against two Dutch nationals who brutally attacked a waiter in Prague in April of this year have been upgraded to attempted murder, the daily Pravo reported on Tuesday.

The two men were originally charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm, but medical experts assessing the case said the prolonged brutality of the assault had been life-threatening.

If convicted the men could face up to 18 years in jail. They remain in custody.

Czech utility ČEZ records steep drop in Q2 revenue, profit

Czech utility ČEZ's second quarter revenues and profit dropped sharply despite increased electricity production due to higher wholesale electricity and emissions prices after forward selling production at lower levels. ČEZ said however that the hit from its hedging operations should dissipate in the second half of the year.

The Prague-listed company’s revenues dropped to 40.9 billion crowns in the second quarter, compared with 48.1 billion in the same period in 2017. Net profit for the quarter dropped to 0.5 billion crowns taking half-year net profit to 7.7 billion crowns, down 54% compared year on year.

Tick-borne encephalitis cases in South Moravia triple

The reported number of cases of tick-borne encephalitis in South Moravia has more than tripled. By the end of July, 38 cases of the potentially fatal disease had been reported, up from roughly a dozen in the two previous summers.

There is no cure for encephalitis, but only about one in four Czechs have themselves vaccinated against it. The country has five times as many cases as in neighbouring Austria, where 90 per cent of the population takes this precaution.

Czech Post Office budget should treble, Interior Minister says

Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats) has proposed the budget for the state-controlled postal service be tripled to 1.5 billion crowns.

Česká pošta, which employs about 30,000 people, has more than 1,300 vacancies due to low wages, he said during a visit on Tuesday of the service’s biggest processing centre.

Last year, the average salary at Česká pošta was about 5,000 crowns below the national average, Mr Hamáček said.

Tabloid paper Blesk tops circulation figures

The tabloid Blesk lost some 33,000 readers in the first half of 2018 but is still the most widely read newspaper, with a circulation of 926,000, according to a new survey.

The broadsheet Mladá fronta dnes had 569,000 readers during that period, a drop in circulation of 3,000 year on year. In third place was the left-leaning daily Právo, with a readership of 253,000.

Rounding out the top five spots were the specialised daily Sport (240,000) and the right-leading national paper Lidové noviny (223,000), followed by another tabloid, Aha! (195,000), and the business daily Hospodářské noviny (182,000).

Tanks helping remove demolished footbridge from Labe River

Three tanks have been called to help with the removal of debris from the demolished footbridge on the Labe River near the town of Nymburk.

The footbridge was pulled down for safety reasons on Friday with large sections of it falling into the river.

The demolition process confirmed the results of an inspection which said the bridge was unsafe both for pedestrians and boat traffic on the river, collapsing much sooner than expected.

The clean-up operation is expected to last for the rest of the week.

Weather outlook

Rain is in the forecast for the regions of Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Pardubice and Hradec Kralove on Wednesday. Elsewhere, it should be partly cloudy, with daytime highs of 35 degrees Celsius.