News

The Czech women's tennis number one Nicole Vaidisova has made a surprise exit in the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. On Wednesday the 17-year-old top seed was beaten 4-6 6-4 6-3 by Michaella Krajicek of Holland, ranked 54 in the world.

The Czech football goalkeeper Petr Cech has reached the semi-finals of the Champions League with his club Chelsea, after they beat Valencia on Tuesday night. Cech has already won the English League Cup with Chelsea this season, while the club are also still in the running for the Premiership and the FA Cup. Only two Czechs have ever won the Champions League - Milan Baros and Vladimir Smicer, who took club football's most prestigious trophy with Liverpool two years ago.

A new round of screening at the Czech Interior Ministry has uncovered 150 collaborators with the former communist secret police, according to the weekly Respekt. The weekly claims that one in twelve employees of the Interior Ministry got a positive screening certificate and a number of them allegedly hold important posts. Interior minister Ivan Langer, who ordered the new round of screening, refused to confirm the outcome or disclose any names. He told the weekly that he had not launched a witch-hunt at the ministry, but had merely taken steps to ascertain the true state of affairs. Although all employees in public service are required to produce a negative screening certificate, some officers in high posts have been known to slip through the net. It came to light in February that the head of the Czech branch of Interpol Pavol Michal, had tricked the screening system by giving the Czech version of his Slovak first name.

The opposition Social Democratic Party has slammed the health minister's plan to introduce health care fees for patients as of 2008, calling it anti-social and saying that it would make health care inaccessible to hundreds of thousands of elderly people. The plan envisages a 30 crown payment for every visit to one's GP, dentist or specialist, another 30 per each item on prescription, 60 crowns per day in hospital and 90 crowns for emergency care. Shadow health minister David Rath said on Tuesday that the plan goes beyond his darkest expectations of what the Civic Democrats would do in the health sector. He said chronic patients and elderly people would be especially hard hit and many would not be able to afford the medical care they need. The health minister said he hoped the plan would prevent what he called "unnecessary health care" and stop Czechs squandering medicine.