News

The Czech Republic ranks fourth in the services index published by the consultancy Price Waterhouse Coopers, making it the fourth most attractive market for foreign investments into the service sector. It also ranked 16th in the manufacturing index by the same agency. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers' Czech manager Petr Hajek, this means the Czech Republic should focus on attracting more foreign investment in the service sector by improving local labour market conditions.

The Rolling Stones are giving a concert in Brno on Sunday night, a part of their world-wide A Bigger Bang Tour. The concert was supposed to take place last year, but had to be postponed due to Mr Richards' accident. About 30,000 people are expected to attend including the Brno Mayor Roman Onderka who wants to present the rock'n'roll legends with gift of four hand-made walking sticks. Traffic on the Brno-Prague motorway is expected to be quite dense on Sunday night also due to the fact that the Brno racing circuit is hosting a Superbike championships event.

Two people died in an accident involving two cars and a van on the D8 motorway near Melnik, northern Bohemia. Thirty-seven- year-old women died at the site of the accident while he co-driver passed away in an ambulance. Two other people suffered serious injuries and were taken to the hospital.

The United States will pay for the disposal of excess missile systems, the daily Pravo reports. The Czech Foreign Ministry was approached by the American embassy in Prague in February and was offered financial assistance of USD 600,000 (over CZK 12,000,000) with the disposal of excess Soviet-produced missiles. The Czech army is planning to destroy over 1300 of these missiles together with more than 600 launching pads until the end of this year and only then will the Foreign Ministry receive the money. The U.S. government fears that the missiles, if not destroyed, could be sold to third parties and eventually used by terrorists.