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The immunity committee of the Czech Senate today recommended that Christian Democrat chairman Jiri Cunek, who is minister for regional development in the new government, be stripped of his immunity so that criminal proceedings can be launched against him. Mr Cunek is suspected of having taken a bribe of 500,000 CZK five years ago when he was mayor of the town of Vsetin in north Moravia. Cunek dismisses the accusation and said he wants to be stripped of immunity so that he can be exonerated. A final decision will be made by a plenary session of the Senate in about two weeks time.

The Green Party, a minor partner in the new coalition government, has expressed its concern regarding statements made by Civic Democrat Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and other government politicians on the future of the EU constitution. Ondrej Liska, the Green Party's chairman of the Chamber of Deputies European affairs committee, said some of the statements made about the document were "too radical". Mr Topolanek is reported to be pushing for the drafting of a new, simpler EU constitution. Mr Liska also expressed unease at the appointment of Eurosceptic Civic Democrat MEP Jan Zahradil as one of the one of Czech Republic's negotiators on the European constitutional treaty.

The new Czech education minister Dana Kuchtova has stated her intention to abolish entrance exams to grammar schools. According to statistics only around twenty percent of all students at Czech secondary schools are grammar school students, the rest are at vocational or technical colleges. This is in sharp contrast to countries such as Poland or Sweden where around half of all students attend grammar school. Minister Kuchtova said she wanted to facilitate students' entry to grammar schools by establishing new admission criteria such as their average grades and performance in primary school.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has defended the country's right to decide freely about hosting a US missile defense system on its territory. Mr. Schwarzenberg was responding to criticism from his French counterpart Phillipe Douste-Blazy who said at a meeting of European foreign ministers on Monday that as an EU member the Czech Republic should not partake in a US-defense project. The Czech foreign minister also dismissed claims that the US missile-defense system would pose a threat to Russia.

The United States on Monday confirmed its intention to begin formal talks with the Czech Republic and Poland on deploying a US missile-defense system in the two countries. The system, including ten interceptor missiles and a radar is aimed at warding off potential missile attacks from North Korea or Iran.