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Memorial ceremonies have been held at Prague's Olsany cemeteries for those who lost their lives in WWII fights as well as in the Prague Uprising of May 1945. Cabinet members, MPs and representatives of foreign embassies also laid wreathes at the graves of soldiers from the Commonwealth countries, the Soviet Union and Bulgaria.

Czech Television has reported that fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir, who is wanted for various crimes in the Czech Republic, has applied for political asylum in South Africa. Mr Krejcir, a citizen of the Seychelles, has reportedly hired a team of Czech lawyers who are on their way to South Africa. Radovan Krejcir was detained in Johannesburg last month after he flew in to South Africa with a false passport. In the last two years he lived in exile in the Seychelles where he had fled from the Czech Republic in mid-2005. A court in Johannesburg is due to decide on Mr Krejcir's release from custody later this month.

Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova has said the 28-year-old Czech soldier who died in a landslide in Afghanistan last week will receive a military award in memoriam. Speaking at a military award ceremony on Monday, Mrs Parkanova paid tribute to the soldier, and a minute of silence was observed. The accident occurred on Thursday night when four vehicles carrying Czech soldiers were driving through the mountains some 30 kilometres from the base of the ISAF multinational forces reconstruction team in Fayzabad, north Afghanistan. A landslide caused by heavy rainfall hit one vehicle with two soldiers. Only one of them was alive when rescuers arrived and is now in a stable condition. Further five soldiers suffered light injuries. The 85-member Czech contingent works along with German and Danish soldiers in the Afghan province of Badakhshan. Besides, a Czech field hospital operates at the Kabul international airport.

According to the French embassy's website, French nationals registered on the voting lists in the Czech Republic clearly preferred Nicolas Sarkozy, France's new President-elect, to his rival Segolene Royal in Sunday's elections. Out of the 846 voters who cast their ballots in Prague on Sunday, Mr Sarkozy received 59.9 percent, compared to the 53.06 percent of the vote in France. In the first round of the presidential elections two weeks ago, French expats in the Czech Republic gave the fewest votes to Segolene Royal.