News

The upper house of Parliament has nominated a candidate to fill the last vacancy on the 15-member Constitutional Court. The nomination of Judge Vladimir Kurka, aged 57, was supported in a secret ballot by 61 of 65 senators present for the Thursday, the state news agency CTK reported. Judge Kurka has worked with the Supreme Court since 1996 and specialises in civil proceedings. He has never been a registered member of a political party. Czech President Vaclav Klaus is expected to approve Judge Kurka's appointment to the Constitutional Court this month.

Municipal authorities in the town of Trutnov, some 100 kilometres east of Prague, have ruled that an activist who publicly announced the Czech prime minister's mobile phone number -- at a local music festival -- did not commit an offence. After activist Stanislav Penc gave out Jiri Paroubek's number at a concert this autumn, thousands of people sent the Prime Minister phone text messages. Most expressed indignation over police action months earlier to shut down a free music festival known as CzechTek. Activist Stanislav Penc successfully argued that he had not violated anyone's personal privacy. The mobile phone number he publicised was already listed on the official webpage of the Social Democratic Party of which Mr Paroubek is chairman.

The new Skoda Octavia has been named "best import" in Germany's annual "Auto Trophy" poll. The prize is announced by the motoring magazine "Auto Zeitung". This year, more than 90,000 readers of the magazine voted in the poll. Skoda Auto has been part of the Volkswagen Group since 1991. The new Octavia model was named 2005 car of the year in the Czech Republic, where it is manufactured, as well as in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Lithuania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, and Great Britain.

Czech lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to keep in place a law banning communist-era officials and members of the secret police from public service jobs. The Communist Party's proposal to scrap the so-called 'screening' law was rejected in Parliament's lower house on Wednesday. The proposal split the country's ruling Social Democratic Party, some of whose members lined up with the Communists. The main opposition party, the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, as well as the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union, all voted against. Questions over the screening bill first came to the fore last month when the Prime Minister, Jiri Paroubek, himself suggested the bill should be dropped, saying it had already served its purpose. Outcry by coalition members and the threat of a rift within the government, however, forced the prime minister to backtrack.