News

The current Czech men’s tennis number one Radek Štěpánek is hoping to appear at Wimbledon, despite not training since sustaining a rib injury last week. Štěpánek, ranked 15th in the world, is due to face fellow Czech Jan Hernych in the first round at the All England Club, most likely on Tuesday.

Petr Wolf has become the fourth Social Democrat MP to leave the party’s deputies group since the last elections in 2006. Mr Wolf quit the deputies group after receiving threats over his positive stance towards US plans to build a radar base in the Czech Republic, a project the opposition Social Democrats are firmly against.

MPs Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka were expelled from the Social Democrats for supporting the current Civic Democrat-led government, while Evžen Snítilý met a similar fate after voting for the Civic Democrats’ candidate for president, Václav Klaus.

Minister Cyril Svoboda has criticised a decision not to hear a serious child abuse case behind closed doors. He told the daily Lidové noviny that the fact the Kuřim case was being reported on in such detail could threaten the health of the two boys whose mother and aunt are on trial. Minister Svoboda said Judge Pavel Goth was more concerned with becoming famous than protecting Jakub and Ondřej Mauer, who allegedly suffered appalling abuse at the hands of a number of adults.

Court proceedings have received a huge amount of attention since the hearing began last week. The story has also been picked up by the international media, though the facts have sometimes been distorted; the British tabloid the Sun for instance ran an article with the headline “Boy eaten by family”.

The body of a woman has been found in the Orlík Dam near Prague, a fire service spokesperson said. The corpse was found in a plastic container, after fishermen alerted the authorities to a strange object floating on the dam. Doctors said the body had been in the water for at least three months. In the early 1990s the bodies of two businessmen and a policeman were found in barrels in the Orlík Dam. Two people received life sentences for those killings, while others – including a police officer – received lengthy jail terms.