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An additional patient is in intensive care at the regional hospital in Karlovy Vary, with first tests showing evidence of swine flu. The patient, also suffering from pneumonia, is being aided by an artificial respirator and is reportedly in stable condition. Further tests are expected to confirm the presence of H1N1. The condition of a second patient, a 30-year-old with swine flu who entered hospital care last week, meanwhile, has not shown signs of improvement, the hospital said.

The academic senate of the Plzeň law faculty is to elect a new dean on Monday to succeed Jaroslav Zachariáš, who stepped down amidst a highly-publicised scandal involving suspected plagiarism at the school. Since then, further details over wide-ranging corruption have emerged, casting a shadow over the faculty. These include allegations of fast-track diplomas, poor record-keeping and other transgressions. The 18-member academic senate is to choose between current acting head, former justice minister Jiří Pospíšil and Prague lawyer Karol Hrádela. To be named dean the successful candidate will have to receive at least ten out of 18 votes.

London football club Chelsea declassed opponents Bolton by a score of 4:0 on Saturday, taking the top spot in the English Premiership standings - two points ahead of Manchester. The game was goalkeeper Petr Čech’s third clean-sheet in as many matches. Earlier in the week Chelsea downed the Bolton Wanderers by the same score in the FA Cup.

Saturday’s edition of the Czech daily Lidové noviny has reported that Prime Minister Jan Fischer is considering nominating the former minister for industry and trade Vladimír Dlouhý for the post of Czech EU commissioner. Mr Dlouhý, who currently works for Goldman Sachs Europe, and was a central figure in 1990s Czech politics, featured most recently in the government’s now defunct economic advisory committee NERV. Lidové noviny writes that as a nominee Mr Dlouhý would likely get backing from several of the country’s parliamentary parties, including the Civic Democrats, Top 09, and the Communists.

The paper adds that the Social Democrats were not necessarily against– although that party would like to see current commissioner Vladimír Špidla continue in a new term. The Christian Democrats and the Greens, meanwhile, are reportedly not in favour. Prime Minister Jan Fischer, heading a caretaker government, had pressed the two largest parties, the Civic and Social Democrats, to agree on a joint-candidate, which they have failed to do; he said on Friday that the nomination of a candidate could be no longer be put off.