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As every year on this day thousands of believers made a pilgrimage to Velehrad in south Moravia, where the missionaries were based. Addressing a congregation of some 30 thousand believers Cardinal Miloslav Vlk said the Church should move with the times and come closer to the people. He said it was vital to present the New Testament in a manner comprehensible to today's young generation. The mass, served by archbishop Jan Graubner, was held out in the open air and dozens of people collapsed in the scorching heat. Medics on standby said people suffered largely from dehydration and sunstroke.

The Sokol /or Falcon/ athletics body -a physical exercise organization founded in 1862 during the Czech national revival - is holding its 14th all-Sokol meeting at Prague's Strahov stadium this week. The event culminates with a mass gym performance at the stadium involving some 18 thousand gymnasts of all ages. Czech expats from around the world are taking part. The Sokol athletics body is one of the oldest organizations in the world. Its modern era began with its revival after the fall of communism but even during the dark period of Czech history ex-pats around the world kept its spirit alive. The all-Sokol meeting takes place once in six years.

The finance ministry has released figures showing a state budget surplus of 7.6 billion crowns - the equivalent of roughly 340 million US dollars - in the first half of 2006. The figure is almost twice the surplus during the first six months of the previous year. On Monday at a press conference, Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka announced that the outgoing government had decided on a provisional budget deficit amounting to 88 billion crowns for 2007. This would translate into a public spending deficit of 3.3 percent of the gross domestic product. According to the finance minister, the proposal is fully in line with the convergence programme agreed for the development of overall debt and public finance deficits between Prague and the European Union, in preparation for adoption of the single currency euro. The Czech Republic intends to adopt the currency in 2010. The proposals will have to be approved by the incoming government. So far, a new government has yet to take office one month after Czechs went to the polls in a general election.

Whether any trade-off becomes reality will apparently still depend on further negotiations: currently the deadlock on "tolerating" the new government has not been resolved. On Tuesday, leaders of the five parties in Parliament - including Civic Democrat head Mirek Topolanek - met to discuss ways of break the stalemate and gain opposition party support. However, the Social Democrats, for example, have so far refused to accept a deal for lower house speaker in return for tolerating the emerging centre-right government. As a result, in the interim the centre-right coalition will propose its own candidate as provisional speaker for the time being: the Christian Democrats' Jan Kasal.