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Viktoria Plzeň are preparing to host England’s Manchester City on Tuesday night in their opening group game in the Champions League, soccer’s most prestigious club tournament. In view of the visitors’ immense wealth the West Bohemian side go into the match as outsiders. However, they will be hoping to capitalise on the European experience they have acquired in the last two seasons and City’s unconvincing form in the Premier League. The other two teams in Plzeň’s group are title-holders Bayern Munich and CSKA Moscow.

Addressing the Forum 2000 conference currently underway in Prague, Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the 20th century had been a century of bloodshed and violence and it was now up to the new generation to strive for a better world and make the 21st century a time of peace. He said young people need to find a broad and long-term vision which would emphasize common interests rather than differences of race or religion. The Dalai Lama stressed that while prayers were important for individuals, what the world needed now was actions.

The Twelve Tribes Christian sect in Bavaria that is suspected of child abuse may have smuggled a group of children to the Czech Republic to hide them from the police, the German magazine Der Spiegel writes. Forty children were taken from the sect earlier this month following police raids at a monastery and a farm. The magazine claims the sect has another home base in Dolchau, Saxony, of which the authorities were not aware and from which ten children aged 7 to 16 disappeared in recent days, according to neighbours in the vicinity. Der Spiegel says the sect recently bought a farm near Prague where the children may have been smuggled. The Twelve Tribes sect, whose teachings are based on the Old and New Testament, is known to believe in corporal punishment. It had been under observation by authorities for some time, particularly for its refusal to send its children to school.

Czech trade unions want the next cabinet to abolish a number of reforms carried out by the previous centre-right administration of Petr Nečas, representatives of the country’s trade union umbrella organization said at a press briefing on Monday. Among the reforms they want abolished is the so-called second pillar of the pension system within which people can transfer part of their compulsory social contributions from the state pay-as-you-go system to private companies. The Social Democrats, who are slated to win the elections, have already said they are prepared to scrap the second pillar. The list of trade union demands also includes minimum wage growth, the construction of 50,000 flats and the introduction of social housing which the Czech Republic completely lacks.