News

Six central European countries, including the Czech Republic, have announced that they want to set up a joint explosives and ammunitions database. At a conference in Prague the countries' interior ministers said that the database would help in the fight against organized crime. The author of the initiative, Slovak Interior Minister, Vladimir Palko, said that a special international organization, similar in structure to Interpol, would be set up to oversee co-ordination of the project.

Passions flew on Friday at the opening night of a new production of the great 19th century Czech opera, The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana. Some members of the audience cried out in disapproval of a production that highlights the humour of the opera and rejects a historical or patriotic interpretation.

The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, was one of many state leaders and officials who attended the funeral of President Yasser Arafat on Friday morning in Cairo. Earlier, Mr Svoboda said that Mr Arafat had played a major role in the history of Palestine, stressing the Palestinian leader would be greatly missed by his people. Mr Svoboda added that the Nobel Peace Prize winner could be regarded as a controversial figure because of his role in the troubling Middle East conflict.

In the 1970s and 1980s communist Czechoslovakia provided political and financial support to the Palestine Liberation Organisation, as well as arms and military training. Mr Arafat visited former Czechoslovakia on several occasions.

Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has recommended the government sell the 51.1 majority stake it holds in the country's dominant fixed-line operator Cesky Telecom on the capital markets, rather than holding a new tender to choose a single buyer. The government is to decide the issue next Tuesday. Mr Sobotka outlined his stance in a document sent to the cabinet describing the political and economic transparency - as well as efficiency - of selling on the capitals markets, an option which does not need approval by the European Commission. Opponents of the plan, however, say it is far from certain investors will be interested in buying up such a large amount of Telecom stocks: excessive availability could consequently drive share prices down.