News

A Russian man who forced a plane to make an emergency landing in Prague is to be tried in a court in the Czech Republic, Pravo reported. The defence lawyer for Yevgenii Dogayev told the daily he was trying to have his client's charge changed from breaching aviation safety to giving false information, which carries a lesser sentence. Mr Dogayev, who was drunk when he tried to force the plane to land in Cairo, says he remembers nothing of the incident. He has paid Czech Airlines for the costs incurred by the emergency landing.

Some 6.64 million foreign tourists visited the Czech Republic in 2006, according to the association of Czech travel agents. That number represents an increase of 4 percent on the previous year. Of last year's total, 57 percent visited Prague.

I Served the King of England, the new film by Czech director Jiri Menzel, is to receive a glitzy red-carpet premiere in Prague on Wednesday evening. The movie, based on the novel of the same name by Bohumil Hrabal, goes on general release in the Czech Republic on Thursday.

President Klaus has named a new government made up of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Green Party. The three-party coalition, which failed a vote of confidence in October, has to undergo another such vote within thirty days. However, it is a vote short of a majority and would need the support of at least one rebel left-wing deputy to remain in power.

Prime Minster Mirek Topolanek, under pressure from within his own Civic Democrats, has staked his political future on the confidence vote: if it fails he says he will step down as party chairman.

The Czech Republic has been without a stable government since elections in June ended in stalemate.