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The government has signed the legal documents required for Prague’s 2016 Olympic bid, it was announced on Wednesday. The signed documents state that the government respects the Olympic charter, and that it would grant free entry and movement to the games’ accredited participants. They will be enclosed in the application which will be taken to the Olympic Committee’s Headquarters in Lausanne on Sunday. Czechs are divided over whether Prague should attempt to host an Olympic games or not. Many think that an Olympics would attract money to the Czech capital at the expense of the regions. They fear that in signing such legally-binding documents, the government has also bound itself financially to the scheme.

Unemployment was up last month by 0.4% to 6%, according to statistics released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The number of people eligible to work but without a job totalled 331,696. This unemployment rate of 6% compares with that of 7.7% recorded in December 2006. As in previous months, the lowest rate of unemployment could be found in the capital Prague, where only 2.2% of people were registered as being unemployed.

Prague City Hall is to establish a new police unit to tackle the problem of homelessness in the capital. On Tuesday, deputy mayor Jiří Janeček made the announcement, adding that the police unit’s goal would be to make Prague’s homeless either leave the capital or ‘reintegrate into society’. He said that Prague City Hall would find employment for each homeless person ‘displaying an interest in work’. But the plan has been criticised by some social workers, who say that it fails to tackle the problem, which, they say, has deeper roots than unemployment. According to last year’s census, there are around 2000 homeless people in Prague. Around half of them sleep rough, while another half are accommodated in shelters run by charities.

Czech tennis prodigy Nicole Vaidišová is through to the semi-finals of the Sydney International, after a surprise win against world number three Jelena Jankovic. Vaidišová won in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, and will now face former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semi-final on Thursday. This is Vaidišová’s ninth encounter with the Serb, Jelena Jankovic, on the WTA tour. This victory is her sixth over the world number three.