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The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has denounced the Tuesday bombing as a cowardly and unforgivable act that took the lives of innocent civilians, including many children. In a statement published in the Kabul Times the Afghan president said such actions were not compatible with the teachings of Islam. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday.

Slovak President Andrej Kiska who is on a state visit to the Czech Republic has been received with military honours at Prague Castle by President Miloš Zeman. The heads of state expressed satisfaction with regard to the countries’ above-standard bilateral relations, though they agreed that there was room for improvement, such as improving the motorway connection between the two countries. They also discussed military cooperation and possible cooperation on foreign markets. The Slovak head of state will later meet with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Senate chairman Milan Stěch.

The European Commission in Brussels has dispatched a long list of reservations about the Czech Republic’s plans to pump EU funds over next financing period until 2020. The daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported Wednesday that the list contains 88 specific reservations over the Czech strategy in the so-called Partnership Agreement. These cover, for example, the heavy onus on constructing incineration plants to deal with household waste, questions why past information technology programmes and investments have been such a shambles, and why plans to burn more biomass in power plants are not linked to cuts in polluting emissions. Overall, the Commission has called for more specific reasons and statistics explaining why certain investment options have been chosen. The Czech Republic is already lagging its neighbours Slovakia and Poland who have already had their Partnership Agreements cleared by Brussels. EU funds over the next seven years for the Czech Republic come to around 550 billion crowns.

Mayors on the German side of the Czech border have warned of the consequences of tolls that Germany intends to impose on foreign drivers from the start of 2016. The proposed tolls were unveiled by Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt on Monday and hit drivers even making short trips across the border on local roads. Mayors from towns and villages along the border have warned that Czech authorities could be tempted to retaliate in kind and impose similar tolls on foreign drivers on local routes and highways. At the moment Czech tolls apply only to motorways and apply to all drivers. The new German toll is expected to cost around 2,400 crowns a year.