News

Many skiers in the Czech Republic have taken advantage of the prolonged weekend to visit the country's skiing resorts for the last time as the season is coming to a close. With between 15 to 40 centimetres of snow on the slopes in the Krkonose Mountains in East Bohemia, Easter Monday has been the last day of operation in some resorts. The resorts of Spindleruv Mlyn, Horni Misecky and Pec pod Snezkou will remain open for another week. All ski lifts were in operation at the weekend at the Ovcarna resort in the North Moravian mountains of Jeseniky- the only one still open to skiers in that area. With over a metre of snow on the slopes, the resort will remain open for at least another week.

Civic Democrat deputy and former finance minister Vlastimil Tlusty says he will not support the government-proposed fiscal reform in a parliament vote unless the cabinet considers his comments. Speaking in a live TV debate on Sunday, Mr Tlusty said the government proposal will not make the calculation of the tax base and tax return any simpler. The governing coalition will be in need of the votes of all coalition deputies to be able to push the reform package through. The opposition Social Democrats and Communists have already announced they will not support the government-proposed bill. The lower house is to start discussing the government's draft reform in June and a vote could be held at an extraordinary session during the summer recess. The government wants the changes to come into force as of January 2008

Parts of the military area in Brdy, Central Bohemia, have re-opened to the public this weekend after 68 years. In all, 45 kilometres of new tourist routes and cycling paths will be open to visitors on weekends and national holidays. The opening ceremony on Saturday was attended by Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova and Chief-of-Staff Vlastimil Picek. Minister Parkanova said that the opening of the new routes was unrelated to the fact that the United States is planning to build a radar base in the same area. She said the routes will remain open regardless of whether the radar facility is built or not.

Czech scientists and their American colleagues from Mayo Clinic are going to meet next week in the city of Brno to discuss the details of a planned international clinic research centre to be built in the city. They are going to assess the current state of the project and outline the forms of further cooperation on the two-billion-crown (96 million USD) project. Besides the US Mayo Clinic, other partners will take part in the project, among them the Brno-based Masaryk Institute of Oncology. The specialised international centre will focus on important projects of applied research, carry out advanced diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and neurological diseases as well as cancer, and offer high-quality education programmes to doctors and the public. The first part of the centre is scheduled to start operation in 2009.