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Czech school children participate in the most out-of-school activities in Europe, a survey commissioned by GE Money Bank has found. Czech children spend between five and eight hours a week in sports and other hobby clubs, which is almost double the amount of time their counterparts in Germany, France and Slovakia spend on such activities. The only European nation in which children are nearly as active is Great Britain, the survey suggested. American and Australian children topped the list, spending between nine and 12 hours in out-of-school activities a week. The survey found that extra-curricular clubs were particularly cheap in the Czech Republic, costing around a third of the price of their counterparts in the United States and Australia.

Czech manager and head of the Czech and Moravian Football Federation, Ivan Hašek announced on Sunday that he would make his future clear as national coach after Wednesday’s game against Northern Ireland. He only took on the post of team manager in the summer after talks with other candidates broke down and had always stressed it was a temporary solution. At that stage, the World Cup qualification chances of the Czech team were already pretty long. Hašek said on Sunday that he already had some idea what could follow after Wednesday’s final qualification match.

A report in the British newspaper The Sunday Times said that French and German diplomats discussed ways of overcoming President Václav Klaus’ last minute obstruction of the Lisbon Treaty. The paper said they raised the possibility of impeaching him or making constitutional changes to remove his veto rights in talks with Czech colleagues. Former Czech prime minister and Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek has said in interviews that he has tried to convince other European leaders not to take retaliatory steps against the Czech Republic over its failure to ratify the EU reforming treaty since these would be counterproductive.

The Czech Republic is the last country to ratify Lisbon after Polish President Lech Kaczynski took the step on Saturday. President Klaus announced on Friday that he wanted a footnote inserted in the treaty guaranteeing that it could not be used by Germans expelled after WWII to reclaim property and challenge the so-called Beneš decrees. The President’s last minute demand does not have the support of the government and has been denounced by most politicians at home.

Garbage Warrior, a documentary by British film maker Oliver Hodge was given the main award at the Ekofilm festival at Český Krumlov on Saturday. The 90-minute documentary follows the real life battle of maverick US architect Michael Reynolds to build environmently friendly homes out of everyday waste. The head of the award jury, Alena Činčerová, described the film as in many respects a breakthrough.

Around three-fifth of Czechs have witnessed corruption: survey

Around 60 percent of Czechs say they have witnessed corruption according to a survey carried out by the SANEP institute. Thirty-eight percent said they had offered bribes and a fifth said they had accepted them. Around three-quarters of respondents said that a new law limiting the activities of lobbyists should come into effect. The survey was carried out between October 1 and 5 with 12,330 people responding to questions on the Internet.