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The tent city which was set up in Prague on January 24 to provide overnight shelter for homeless people will by removed next Wednesday, Prague mayor Pavel Bem told reporters on Thursday. The seven army tents, equipped with wood-burning ovens and toilets, have been providing beds and food for around a hundred homeless people every night. According to estimates, there are some 4,600 homeless people in the Czech capital, while shelters only provide 900 beds. The costs of the operation of the tent city are estimated at just under a million crowns (38,000 dollars).

Social Democrat and Communist Deputies joined forces to push through a much disputed new labour code during a session of the Lower House of the Czech Parliament on Wednesday. The opposition Civic Democrats and the two junior ruling coalition parties, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union, have expressed fears that it would increase the authority of trade unions and threaten the flexibility of the labour market.

The lower house also approved an amendment to the consumer protection law, which - among other things - would allow for entrepreneurs who violate the law to be fined up to 50 million crowns. The maximum fine currently stands at one million crowns. The labour code and amendment have yet to be approved by the Senate and signed by the President.

Paediatricians, sexologists, social workers and others involved in child care attended a round table discussion in Prague on Wednesday. An estimated 18,000 children in the Czech Republic have been involved in prostitution, pornography, or were victims of some other type of commercial sexual abuse. This constitutes close to one percent of the country's population under the age of 18 years. According to Eva Vanickova from Charles University's medical faculty, it is up to paediatricians to be more attentive and look out for symptoms of abuse. The health ministry also presented a new information booklet on the problem.

The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, has the described a boycott of Danish goods by some Muslim countries as a complete over-reaction to the publication of cartoons of Mohammad in the Danish press. Mr Svoboda said the burning of the flags of European Union states was an attack on values important to Europeans. He made the comments after talks with the European commissioner for trade, Peter Mandelson, who visited Prague on Tuesday. Mr Mandelson called for a sensitive and moderate resolution to the controversy.