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The Czech Intelligence Service has made public unique documents from the history of espionage. The records document the collaboration of secret services within the former communist block, particularly the collaboration between the Soviet KGB and the Czechoslovak communist secret police, or STB. Some of the documents reveal the STB tactics used against the Church, dissidents and exiles.

The Senate has approved a bill that would lower value added tax on certain foodstuffs such as coffee, tea and chocolate but leave the tax rate on alcohol unchanged. The amendment would move the selected items to a preferential, 5-percent VAT bracket, harmonising taxes on all food, while the tax rate on alcohol would remain 19 percent. The bill has yet to be signed into law by the president.

The European Commission has officially informed Austria that safety standards at the Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia are adequate. The EU Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs said in a letter to a member of the Austrian Parliament that Temelin's safety standard had been checked by a team of twenty inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency before the plant was put into operation and that no shortcomings were found. Austrian politicians and environmentalists who have been trying to get the plant closed on safety grounds are said to have been surprised and disappointed by the EC's response.

Czech Republic midfielder Vladimir Smicer has suffered a setback in his recovery from a leg injury, putting his participation at the World Cup finals in doubt. The Girondins Bordeaux player has been struggling for fitness since a February tendon injury behind his right knee. At the Czech Republic training camp in Seefeld, Austria, team doctors found a blood clot in his thigh muscle. Team doktor Jiri Fousek said it was unlikely Smicer would play in friendlies before the side's first game at the World Cup against the U.S. on June 12.