News

A group of students have launched a petition calling on the National Library to maintain an historic reading room at Prague's Clementinum, a short distance from Charles Bridge. Lidove noviny reported that the students were worried the reading room would be moved to a planned new National Library building on the city's Letna Plain. However, library director Vlastimil Jezek described the petition as nonsense. He told the daily that 70 percent of the Clementinum would be used by the library after the move to Letna, and that important collections would remain there.

The lower house of Parliament has decided to postpone the introduction of a state school-leaving exam. Under current law, each secondary school writes its own school-leaving test, known in the Czech Republic as the "maturita". This has come under much criticism as some tests are harder than others and some universities consider the test results as part of their entrance exams.

A new unified state exam was to be introduced in the 2007/2008 school year but deputies agreed to postpone this date as preparations have been slow. If the deputies' decision is approved by the Senate and signed by the President, the state "maturita" will not be introduced for another two years.

Agriculture minister Petr Gandalovic has prepared a special bill that ascertains whether former members of farmers' cooperatives have actually got their former property back under the de-nationalisation process which followed the fall of communism. Hospodarske Noviny reports that the private companies from which the cooperatives were formed would be held responsible for any failed returns. Mr Gandalovic tells the paper that tens of thousands of people who had rights to property in the privatisation process have issued complaints. The property in question is worth billions of crowns, he adds. The agriculture minister plans to put his bill forward at a government session in the near future.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is celebrating his birthday. Mr Klaus, who turned 66, invited friends and politicians to Prague Castle for a private party on Tuesday evening. A watch and a painting featuring the Senate building are among the numerous presents that Mr Klaus received.