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Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has suggested President Vaclav Klaus should attend the next time the cabinet meets to discuss foreign policy. The prime minister and the president have been at odds recently over who legally has the right to present the country's foreign policy abroad, with Mr Paroubek saying it is clearly the responsibility of government. On Thursday the prime minister threatened to ban President Vaclav Klaus from travelling abroad if the president contradicted the government's foreign policy. Mr Klaus is well-known for his opposition, for example, to the EU constitution. On Friday the prime minister tempered his words somewhat by saying that trips would not be banned, just carefully weighed. The government approves all official trips by the president.

Customs officials have stated that in recent years a greater abundance of illegal drugs smuggled into the Czech Republic have come from the Netherlands. Illegal substances have included the drug pervetin, a methamphetamine. This year successful recoveries by customs officials included uncovering more than 2 kilograms of ecstasy as well as a quarter kilogram of heroin found on a bus from Amsterdam headed for the city of Brno. In 2004 customs officials uncovered 59 cases of drugs smuggling by car, and 37 by bus including a discovery of 25 kilograms of 100 percent pure heroin.

The Czech prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, has threatened to ban President Vaclav Klaus from travelling abroad if the president contradicts the government's foreign policy. The prime minister said Mr Klaus - who is opposed to European integration and the EU constitution - was a servant of the state who should reflect the position of the cabinet, which sets foreign policy under the Czech constitution. The government approves all trips by the president in what is normally a routine decision.

Earlier this week Mr Paroubek said in an interview with London's Financial Times that the president was exceeding his constitutional powers by campaigning against the EU constitution. Ratifying the document is one of the government's key policy objectives.

Mr Klaus's party the Civic Democrats have called on the prime minister to explain his comments in the lower house. The party has likened Mr Paroubek's statement to the practices of the Communist regime, saying it was an attempt to stifle free debate on an important issue which affected all Czech citizens.

Investigative reporter Sabina Slonkova has been given the Karel Havlicek Borovsky award for journalism. Ms Slonkova, who writes for the daily Hospordarske noviny, was herself in the news two years ago when the police foiled a plan to kill her by former Foreign Ministry official Karel Srba; he ordered a contract killing after she reported on some of his dubious dealings at the ministry.