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Black-clad demonstrators battled Czech police with rocks and bottles on Wednesday as part of a staged riot held near the town of Milovice, some fifty kilometers from Prague. The mock riot was staged to help Czech forces gear up for the NATO summit to be held in Prague later this month, the Czech Republic's largest security operation ever. An estimated 12,000 police and soldiers are preparing for the arrival of more than 40 leaders for the key meeting in the third week of November. Recalling the violent clashes that erupted in the czech capital two years ago at the meeting of the International Monetary Fund, Czech police chief Jiri Kolar said on Wednesday that police would be more pro-active this time around if anti-globalisation protesters tried to force their way into Prague's Congress Centre, the key locoation for summit talks.

The Czech government is to decide whether or not the controversial President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko should be granted a visa to the Czech Republic. President Lukashenko, whose country has voiced strong opposition to NATO expansion, has applied for a visa in view of attending the November NATO summit in Prague. According to unofficial sources at NATO headquarters President Lukashenko has not been invited to the summit. Belarus, criticized by the West over its record on human rights and freedom of speech, has been at odds with several international institutions.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has approved a resolution on the controversial Benes decrees, stating that they do not present a hurdle to the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. The verdict is based on the outcome of a legal expertise commissioned by the European Parliament which concluded that the decrees are not in violation of EU law. The Benes decrees, which sanctioned the expulsion of 2.5 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after WWII, have been criticized by some groups in Austria and Germany who asked the Czech Republic to abolish the decrees before joining the European Union.

The Czech police announced on Monday, they had charged nine men last week for supporting and propagating movements that suppress man's basic rights and freedoms. Apart from publicly giving the Nazi salute, wearing racist and neo-Nazi symbols and spreading racist material, they are also suspected of having organised four concerts featuring racist bands. According to Patrik Frk from the Czech police, the men between the ages of 19 and 25 were uncovered as part of operation Patriot - a wide police campaign against extremism that was launched in August 2001. Mr Frk added that the Central Bohemian police spent over a year verifying evidence against the men. When the police raided suspects' homes in May this year, hundreds of compact discs, cassettes, t-shirts and other materials that all propagate racism were found. The suspects have not been detained by the police but may face between three to eight years in prison if found guilty of the charges.