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Czechs are increasingly interested in discounts and 40 percent of Czech households study retailers´ flyers and compare prices before shopping for food, according to the results of a poll conducted by Incoma GfK. This is the highest number since monitoring started in 1997. The popularity of discount shops is on the rise, while interest in small shops is decreasing. Twenty-five percent of households say they shop exclusively at discount stores, 17 percent cite supermarkets, and only 12 percent of households said they buy food mainly in smaller shops, the lowest share since 1997.

Czech international soccer captain Tomáš Rosický appears likely to be offered a contract extension by the English Premier League side Arsenal. His current deal expires in the summer. Describing him as marvellous, manager Arsene Wenger said on Friday that the midfielder, who is 33, would be staying at the club. There have been reports that a number of club’s in the MLS in the United States were interested in signing Rosický, who joined Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund in 2006.

Prospects for the fast adoption of a civil service bill appear more uncertain after the reappearance of splits within the incoming coalition government. Christian Democrat deputy chairman Marian Jurečka raised tension by saying the new framework should explicitly rule out the possibility of anyone who actively cooperated with the Communist era secret police becoming a minister. That stance could jeopardize the chances of ANOleader Andrej Babiš become finance minister in an incoming cabinet. Babiš is listed in some records as a collaborator with the communist police. Christian Democrat leader Pavel Bĕlobrádek later sought to smooth things over by saying that the new civil service rules should cover officials but not ministers. The planned legislation is also urgently being demanded by the European Commission.

Investigations into possible wrongdoing by three secret servicemen at the centre of the scandal which toppled former Civic Democrat prime minister Petr Nečas have been upheld. The Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office rejected appeals by the three men against the police proceedings against them on Thursday. The three members of the army’s espionage service are suspected of acting illegally when they spied on Petr Nečas’ wife, allegedly on the orders of his then mistress. The defense minister at the time says he did not authorize the surveillance. Nečas resigned last June and has since married the former head of his private office.