News

The creation of a minority government after the Christian Democrats' departure from the coalition would be the worst possible solution to the current political crisis, economic analysts have told the CTK news agency. According to CTK they are afraid that a government with only minority support in Parliament would be unable to push through crucial economic reforms. They see the government's fall and early elections, or the forming of a majority cabinet as the best solutions.

A member of the Qatar royal family has been charged in the Czech Republic with abusing underage girls, the CTK news agency has reported. Prosecutors are also investigating young women alleged to have acted as intermediaries for the man, Hamid Sani, by recruiting under-age girls on the streets. According to police, Mr Sani abused girls who had been delivered to him in his Prague flat by three young women. Detectives discovered that up to 10 girls a day took turns in Mr Sani's flat. Mr Sani, along with the three alleged procurers, faces charges of sexual abuse, corrupting morals and procuring. Hamid Sani, who has been in custody pending investigations since September, has lived in the Czech Republic for more than 10 years, running a private business.

The embattled Czech Prime Minister, Stanislav Gross, will face a parliamentary vote of no-confidence on Friday. The announcement comes as the leadership of the Christian Democratic Party, a junior partner in Mr Gross' ruling coalition, said on Wednesday it would leave the government if he continues as premier; party leader Miroslav Kalousek said all Christian Democrat ministers (foreign affairs, transport, environment) will resign on Thursday.

Separately, the head of the opposition Communist Party, Miroslav Grebenicek, who earlier this week had said he would urge his colleagues to support the no-confidence motion, said after a two-hour meeting on Wednesday with Mr Gross that his deputies might not vote against him after all. Mr Grebenicek said that the policies of the centre-right Civic Democrats, the main opposition party, which had called for the vote, were more of a concern to the Communists than were the past mistakes of the current government.

The no-confidence vote stems from calls for Prime Minister Gross to step down over alleged discrepancies in his personal finances, including his purchase of a luxury apartment in Prague six years ago, as well as his wife Sarka Grossova's business activities.

A reactor at the Temelin nuclear power station in the southern part of the Czech Republic was shut down on Wednesday due to a fault in a power turbine, and is expected to remain offline for about two weeks. A reactor was last shut down at the plant, which lies about 50 kilometres from the Austrian border, on Sunday evening, and was restarted on Monday morning. Czech officials said the most recent fault at Temelin was not located in a part of the plant close to nuclear fuel and said that the second reactor at Temelin was functioning normally.