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President Vaclav Klaus is expected to appoint actor Vitezslav Jandak culture minister on Wednesday. Mr. Jandak will replace the late Pavel Dostal who died of cancer in July. The Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has said he expects the new culture minister to establish a constructive dialogue with the churches. This has proved to be a problematic area in recent years. The President will also be appointing the former Prague mayor, Igor Nemec, as head of the Office for Protection of Personal Data.

There were no Czech citizens aboard the Prague-bound Cypriot airliner which crashed north of Athens on Sunday killing all 121 people on board, the Reuters agency wrote citing the official list of passengers. According to the Cypriot government there were 104 Cypriots onboard the plane, 12 Greek nationals, four Armenians and a German pilot. The Greek authorities have announced that the bodies of 119 victims have been found so far, along with both of the Boeing's black boxes, which have been sent to Paris to be examined by experts.

The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and President Vaclav Klaus have sent their condolences and extended their sympathy to the victims' families and friends.

The former Jewish ghetto Terezin or Theresienstadt north of Prague may become a vast European memorial to the Holocaust, as outlined in plans unveiled on Monday by the regional authorities. The head of the regional council Jiri Sulc, said he was impressed with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, adding that it was unfortunate that there was not a similar memorial in Europe which was so greatly affected by the Holocaust. Under Nazi occupation the former Czech military town of Terezin became a holding ghetto through which nearly 140,000 Jews passed during World War II. Some 87,000 of them were sent on to the death camps in Poland while nearly 35,000 died in the Czech ghetto, primarily because of deplorable health and sanitation conditions.

A Cypriot airliner carrying 121 people crashed north of Athens on Sunday. The plane, which was bound for Prague, went down just minutes before it was due to make a scheduled stop-over in Athens. The accident happened over mountainous terrain and the Greek authorities have said there are no reports of survivors. There have been conflicting reports about the nationalities of those on board. A Cypriot official said the majority of passangers were Greek Cypriots. According to available information there were no Czech nationals on board. An earlier report according to which there were 80 Greek children aboard the plane has been ruled out.

The Greek authorities have said the accident was most likely caused by a sudden failure of the air conditioning system and resulting loss of pressure and oxygen in the cabin as a result of which the pilots lost consciousness. An investigation is underway.

The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and President Vaclav Klaus have sent condolences and extended their sympathy to the victims' families and friends. The Czech foreign ministry and Ruzyne Airport had prepared to deal with a potential crisis, setting up hotlines and having psychologists on stand-by at the airport in case relatives and friends of people bound for Prague had need of them. According to available information their services were not required.