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The new Skoda Octavia has been named "best import" in Germany's annual "Auto Trophy" poll. The prize is announced by the motoring magazine "Auto Zeitung". This year, more than 90,000 readers of the magazine voted in the poll. Skoda Auto has been part of the Volkswagen Group since 1991. The new Octavia model was named 2005 car of the year in the Czech Republic, where it is manufactured, as well as in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Lithuania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, and Great Britain.

Czech lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to keep in place a law banning communist-era officials and members of the secret police from public service jobs. The Communist Party's proposal to scrap the so-called 'screening' law was rejected in Parliament's lower house on Wednesday. The proposal split the country's ruling Social Democratic Party, some of whose members lined up with the Communists. The main opposition party, the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, as well as the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union, all voted against. Questions over the screening bill first came to the fore last month when the Prime Minister, Jiri Paroubek, himself suggested the bill should be dropped, saying it had already served its purpose. Outcry by coalition members and the threat of a rift within the government, however, forced the prime minister to backtrack.

A new anti-discrimination bill amendment was passed on Wednesday promising more protection for Czech citizens. The bill is said to outline fair treatment regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation, or age, and should offer additional protection against discrimination in cases of language, political persuasion, property-ownership, and family status. The amendment brings the Czech Republic's antidiscrimination legislation level with EU norms. If passed by the senate and signed by the president, it should take effect on July 1st, 2006.

A new poll released by the Factum agency has suggested that if elections were held today they would see a dead-heat between the opposition, right-of-centre Civic Democrats and the ruling Social Democratic Party. According to the poll, the Social Democrats would now get around 28 percent of the vote, with the Civic Democrats garnering 30 percent. Under current conditions only two other parties would make it into Parliament: the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats. The prognosis, says Factum, indicates that if elections were held now the Social Democrats could play a role in two possible majority governments: ruling either together with the Communist Party or joining a so-called "grand coalition" with the Civic Democrats.