News

Every second Czech would welcome the resignation of Prime Minister Stanislav Gross and almost one in three is in favour of holding early elections, according to a new poll by the SC&C agency. The poll of 908 people was conducted for the leading Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes following calls for the prime minister to step down over the unclear financing of his apartment and his wife's controversial business activities. Of those surveyed, roughly one in five had no opinion as to how the current crisis in the governing coalition should be resolved, while only one in ten said they were in favour of Mr Gross's party, the Social Democrats, forming a minority government. Roughly one in four persons polled said they would prefer that Mr Gross resign but have the coalition remain in power.

Czech Dentists are threatening to leave health insurance companies and plan to ask patients to pay for every service directly by the middle of next year. The president of the Czech Dentists' Association, which held a general meeting on Saturday, said the dentists' contracts with insurers expire in mid-2006. If the government fails to introduce changes to its health insurance policy that would set more favourable conditions, the country's dentists, who are every year decreasing in number, will stop co-operating and will take direct payments from patients instead.

The People in Need branch in the northern Caucasus town of Nazran, Ingushetia, has been accused of violating Russian law. The ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Saturday that the Czech humanitarian organisation was employing people who are in close contact with armed militant groups. People in Need rejects the allegations, saying it is all part of a campaign in the region to oust humanitarian organisations.

A Czech student won the Miss Tourism World 2005 title at a ceremony in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Saturday. Zuzana Putnarova, who turns nineteen on Monday, beat 93 contestants from 82 countries. The pageant, organised by the Britain-based Miss Tourism World Organisation, aims at promoting tourism in parts of the world in dire need of promotion. The ceremony, which was held at the Harare International Conference Centre, was attended by some 2,000 people, including Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe.