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Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has come up with a plan to simplify the collection of taxes, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Thursday. The plan proposes to merge tax and social insurance payments into a single tax which would be deducted from the so-called “super-gross” salary; that is, the employee’s gross salary together with compulsory social security payments by the employer. Under the current tax rates, the new “super tax” would amount to 40.2 percent of individual salaries. Mr Kalousek said the new system would make tax payments easier for both tax payers and tax collectors. The Czech Finance Minister is also considering including compulsory health insurance payments into the new tax.

Czechs are divided in their views on the independence of the former Serbian province of Kosovo, a poll carried out by the CVVM agency suggested on Thursday. 36 percent of Czech citizens do not agree with Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence while 34 percent believe the contrary. Some 30 percent of Czechs do not have any opinion on the matter. The Czech Foreign Ministry proposed earlier this week the Czech Republic recognize independent Kosovo but the government postponed its decision on the matter.

Czech media may in the future face fines for running drastic photos. The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a Czech tabloid paper which printed in 2006 a picture of a young man who died in a car crash had to pay 100,000 crowns, or more than 6,200 U.S. dollars, to his family. The court said that the publication of such photos interferes with the family’s privacy.

Former Czechoslovak TV journalist Ludmila Sýkorová has published a book on the events that took place in Brno during the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Ms Jankovcová said she attempted an objective approach to the events any compensation were shot dead by the Soviet troops in Brno on August 21, the first day of the occupation, while many more suffered injuries inflicted by the occupation forces.