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The opposition Civic Democrats do not plan to initiate a confidence vote in the government of Prime Minister Stanislav Gross over the financing of Mr Gross's luxury flat in Prague. The party's deputy head Ivan Langer said on Thursday it would be an empty gesture at this point. The Prime Minister himself said that he is not going to resign over the controversy surrounding the purchase of his flat. Speaking at the lower house of parliament on Thursday he said the controversy, as well as speculation about the financial sources of his wife's business were created artificially. Recently the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes discovered that Mr Gross's flat cost more than he had officially earned. So far the explanations given by the Prime Minister have not been accepted by his political opponents.

The Czech Republic's national air carrier Czech Airlines transported a record 4.34 million passengers last year, up from 3.6 million in 2003 and 3 million the year before, a Czech Airlines spokeswoman said. By preliminary un-audited results, the carrier made a profit of more than 250 million crowns (or around 10 million dollars) in 2004 after years of losses. Last year Czech Airlines also added ten new destinations. Passengers were mostly interested in flights to London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and Moscow. In 2004 Czech Airlines extended its fleet, having acquired ten new planes, the highest number in its history, and operating a total of 45 aircraft at the end of the year. Czech Airlines operates Boeing 737s, ATRs and Airbus 310s.

The Czech government estimates that almost a quarter of Czechs can make themselves understood in English. According to government official Ivan Fisera, the Czech Republic scored better than for example Latvia, Portugal, Poland and Hungary. The government of Stanislav Gross has put forward a new plan called "English for Everyone" aiming to improve the nation's knowledge of the language. Sixty-seven percent of primary school children over ten years of age learn English as their main compulsory language, which is the third lowest percentage in this age group in Europe.

The Slovak government has decided not to appeal a court verdict ordering it to pay 24.8 billion Slovak crowns (some 775 million US dollars) to the Czech bank CSOB (Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka). In December last year, the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled that Slovakia still had an outstanding debt to the Czech bank after it failed to pay back a loan from 1993. The Slovak Finance Ministry has promised to pay CSOB 16 billion Slovak crowns by Friday. The remaining sum owed would be paid by the beginning of next year with one percent interest.