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In other news, the convention of Czech Airlines’ pilots’ union has approved a wage cut for pilots of up to 40% based on a slew of conditions, including the departure of the company’s management and its continued ownership by the state. The head of the union, Filip Gaspar, said that the wage decrease was an alternative to privatisation, adding that the union would only sign the relevant contractual documentation with the new management. The union’s other conditions are to be announced Friday. The finance ministry is currently weighing up the sole bid for around 90 percent of Czech Airlines from the Unimex-Travel Service Consortium. The government should give its verdict on whether the sale can go ahead by the end of the month.

The city of Olomouc has officially announced it will be hosting the first of what it plans as an annual international festival of ballet from October 23 to 25. The Ballet Days Olomouc festival anticipates leading European ballet troupes as well as a competition category for professional and student dancers from the Czech Republic and abroad. The event will conclude with a gala event featuring performances by the Kremlin Ballet, the Vienna and Berlin State Opera Ballets, among others.

The Czech president, Václav Klaus, met with the Russian leader, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow on Wednesday. Mr Klaus told reporters after a two-hour meeting that he would not abandon the condition he had set down for finalizing the ratification of EU’s Lisbon treaty but that he wouldn’t “send out signals” about his next steps concerning the document’s ratification. Both politicians discussed issues related to Czech-Russian cooperation; Mr Klaus invited his Russian counterpart to visit Prague.

Last week, Václav Klaus announced he would not complete the ratification of the Lisbon treaty unless the Czech Republic is granted an exception form the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. He said it could lead to property claims from ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after WWII.

Czech police have arrested 160 members of an alleged child porn distribution network, a Prague police spokeswoman told reporters on Wednesday. In one of the biggest cases of its kind in the country’s history, the police carried out 150 home searches, confiscated 342 computers and other devices, and arrested some 160 suspects aged 20 to 70, including two current and one former police officers. Most of them have reportedly confessed.

The police was alerted by one of the suspect’s girlfriend who went to the police in Prague. Most suspects, some 40 of whom are women, were arrested in the capital and north and south Moravia.