News

Czech tennis player Tomáš Berdych is preparing for his first Wimbledon finals match after defeating Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in straight sets on Friday. The 24-year-old said on Saturday that reaching the final was the fulfilment of a dream, and that he would enjoy his victory for the day and get a good sleep before getting ready for the championship match on Sunday, in which he will be pitted against world number one Rafael Nadal. Berdych is the first Czech to reach the final at Wimbledon since Ivan Lendl in 1987.

Outgoing Finance Minister Eduard Janota has disqualified the PPF financial group from a controversial ecological tender on cleaning up damage to the environment, a spokesman for the finance ministry said. According to the official, Mr Janota based his decision on the findings of an expert commission questioning the qualifications of the bidder in the so-called “supertender”. It is the second time the Finance Ministry has disqualified the consortium of PPF Advisory, Ecosoil Sud, AVE CZ and Dekonte. Previously the group appealed to the Office for the Protection of Competition, which overturned the decision. PPF may do so again. The ecological supertender - worth an estimated 115 billion crowns – merges hundreds of smaller projects on cleaning up the environment; it has been criticised by both activists and politicians for being potentially open to corruption.

The Social Democrats have said they are preparing to put forward names for a shadow government and to present an alternative programme contrasting the one coming together among centre-right coalition parties expected to form the next cabinet. Speaking at a press conference in Prague on Friday, acting Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka said his party would be rigorous in opposition. His party won the general election in May but still fared worse than expected and from the get-go was unable to find a partner to form a viable coalition. Mr Sobotka suggested that while his party would not pull any punches, it would back positive legislation, such as restricting immunity for MPs or cutting politicians’ salaries. But he expressed disappointment in the centre-right parties’ aim to keep the flat tax. The acting leader, who took after Jiří Paroubek resigned over the election results, is a former finance minister as well as likely candidate for chairman in the future.

Police in the Chrudim area are investigating the circumstances in the tragic death of a four-year-old boy in the area who was run over by his mother as she was practicing at the wheel of her car, the news website tn.cz reported. The accident took place on Thursday evening. Police are not revealing any details about the incident but the head doctor at emergency services revealed that the mother made a critical mistake when she opted to take the boy home rather than immediately calling an ambulance. When emergency workers were alerted, they tried to assist at least over the phone before an ambulance as well as helicopter arrived. At that point it was too late: medics were unable to resuscitate the child, who succumbed to his injuries. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death as well as to help establish the exact circumstances in the incident.