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A second high-profile Czech businessman returned from aboard this week to face criminal charges. Jiri Syrovatka, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for his alleged role in a tax fraud case, had been in the United States on holiday. A co-defendant in the case, businessman Tomas Pitr, had returned home to the Czech Republic from neighbouring Austria on Thursday. Both men have filed appeals but were considered high risks for flight. Had Syrovatka not returned to the country by this Monday, police would have issued an international arrest warrant.

A Czech delegation left for South Korea on Monday for talks with representatives of the carmaker Hyundai, which is considering investing some 1.2 billion dollars into a new plant in Ostrava. In hopes of finalising a deal, apart from other incentives and tax breaks, the Czech delegation will present the government's plan to improve regional infrastructure and widen a highway reaching the border with Slovakia, where Hyundai has a subsidiary. The carmaker has said it will make a final decision this month.

The Minister of Labour, Zdenek Skromach, has denied reports in the tabloid media that Czech Airlines (CSA) in any way paid for or subsidised his family holiday in New York over New Year's. Skromach and his family did stay in discount hotel used by the national carrier flight staff. But the labour minister said he had only used Czech Airlines to reserve the rooms and produced receipts to prove that he had paid for the hotel himself. The airline also denied having in any way funded the minister's orivate New York trip.

The head of the Czech Chamber of Pharmacists, Lubomir Chudoba, has said that the planned strike of pharmacists is becoming inevitable because of the attitude of the health ministry. Mr Chudoba said that the outcome of a meeting of pharmacists and Health Minister David Rath on Monday will decide whether pharmacies will close their doors on Wednesday or not. Czech pharmacists disagree with the ministry's recent decision to cut their profit margins by three percent in order to reduce medicine costs. Meanwhile, Health Minister David Rath says he is considering a further reduction of the profit margin, which now stands at 29 percent.