Financial crisis leads to increase in applications to join Czech army

The financial crisis has led to an increase in applications to join the Czech army, the chief-of-staff Vlastimil Picek said on Thursday. While the army had been planning to take in 1500 recruits this year, over 40 percent of those places were filled in January and February, and the intake is now likely to be higher than originally planned, Lieutenant General Picek told reporters. He also said that while the financial crisis was forcing the army to make cutbacks, it would not affect its foreign missions.