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The Temelín nuclear power plant will be switching from American to Russian fuel. The fuel, which has been provided until now by the US company Westinghouse, will be phased out of the first block over the next two months in favour of the new Russian provider TVEL, which won a 10-year tender for the contract in 2006. Temelín will shut down its first block on Friday evening to begin the change, which will involve 600 ČEZ employees and roughly 1000 workers from 50 supply companies. The fuel in the second block of the power station will be exchanged in the spring of next year.

A poll carried out by the STEM agency suggests that a majority of Czechs support the new centre-right government coalition, which consists of the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and Public Affairs parties. 53% of respondents are in favour of the coalition, while 58% of those who participated in May elections give their support. The poll also rated the parties’ credibility among citizens. The new Public Affairs party was considered “trustworthy” by most small party supporters, left-leaning voters and non-voters. Partisan voters, meanwhile, were more likely to consider the party “suspicious”. The coalition parties received a combined total of 48% of the legislative election in May and will stand a vote of confidence in Parliament on August 10.

The number of Czech troops in Afghanistan should remain unchanged at its current total of 525 over the next couple of years, the new Czech defence minister, Alexandr Vondra, told reporters on Thursday. Mr Vondra said he was not planning to reduce the number of Czech troops on foreign missions, according to a plan he would present to the lower house of Parliament in the autumn. However, the new minister also said he was not going to ask MPs to approve the sending of 55 more soldiers to Afghanistan, a plan mooted by the previous government of Jan Fischer.

The conductor Sir Charles Mackerras died in London on Wednesday at the age of 84. He was a champion of Czech classical music and was particularly associated with the composer Leoš Janáček, whose international profile he did much to raise. Sir Charles also worked with the Czech Philharmonic for five decades. He first came to Prague in 1947, and studied conducting under Václav Talich. Sir Charles Mackerras last visited the Czech capital in April, when he was presented with an award by the Czech Culture Ministry for promoting the good name of Czech culture.