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Jaroslav Zavadil has been elected the new head of the Bohemian and Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, a Czech umbrella union, at its congress, ČMKOS spokeswoman Jana Kašparová has said. Mr Zavadil, the only candidate to run for the post of chairman, was supported by 337 of 368 delegates who cast their vote. He replaces Milan Štech who did not seek re-election. His predecessor announced his departure in January, citing the long period during which he had headed the umbrella union and his need to focus more on duties as the deputy head of the Senate. Mr Štech, who is 58, has been a senator since 1996; he headed the ČMKOS for eight years.

Hockey club Vítkovice stopped opponents Slavia in their tracks on Friday, earning a spot in the Extraliga finals against Pardubice. Vítkovice outplayed Slavia Prague, winning by a score of 3:1 in a best-of-seven series that the club dominated, allowing Slavia only a single win. Vítkovice will now face Pardubice, who swept Liberec in their series, for the championship title. Pardubice won the playoffs back in 2005; this year, they are being buoyed by the legendary goalie Dominik Hašek in net.

US President Barack Obama met with his Czech counterpart Václav Klaus on Friday, capping a two-day trip to the Czech Republic which saw the signing of a landmark nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia. Prague Castle was the venue a day earlier for the signing of the new deal by Mr Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. By signing the treaty Russia and the US have agreed to reduce their nuclear stockpiles by 30 percent more than in a previous deal, but in order to come into effect the treaty will still have to ratified by legislators in both countries.

Mr Obama’s meeting with Václav Klaus shortly before heading back to the US on Friday was brief but Mr Klaus said the two had discussed important issues, including the naming of a new US ambassador to Prague, as well as the planned completion of the Czech Republic’s Temelín nuclear power plant. That is a project in which US-based company Westinghouse is hoping to bid. On the whole, Mr Obama spent around 26 hours in the Czech capital, a year after his first visit when he first outlined his administration’s plans for reducing nuclear weapons.

The spokesman for public broadcaster Czech TV, Ladislav Šticha, has revealed that 1.5 million local viewers watched a live broadcast on Thursday on the signing of the new Start treaty at Prague Castle by the US and Russian presidents. By comparison, the figure is lower than the number of those who tuned in for coverage of last year’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI – more than 2.3 million, or the number of those who saw Barack Obama’s speech outside Prague Castle last year, in which he outlined his vision for a world free of nuclear weapons. That was seen by 1.7 million people.