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The Czech foreigner and border police will be reorganised by January 1 in connection with the Czech Republic's entry to the Schengen area. Pavel Vosicky of the Pilsen foreigner police made the announcement on Friday. The official revealed that 43 foreigner police inspectorates will be established by January to replace a current 195 branches which will cease to exist. Seven regional foreigner police offices will continue to function. The foreigner and border police management announced previously that all employees who will lose jobs as the result of the changes would be able to join traffic police in the border regions. The main task of the newly established inspectorates will be to prevent illegal migration. The Czech foreigner and border police had more than seven thousand members in 2005; by the end of this year their number will be reduced by more than two thousand.

Tomas Plekanec scored his 9th goal of the season in NHL ice hockey action on Thursday, helping lift his team the Montreal Canadiens over “Original Six” rival, the Boston Bruins. The Canadiens won 4:2, their 7th match in a row against Boston.

Toronto, meanwhile dumped the New York Rangers 6:2 with Leaf’s defenseman Pavel Kubina getting an assist. The Rangers’ Jaromir Jagr failed to get on the board.

The Green Party would seriously consider leaving the governing coalition should Jiri Cunek return to the cabinet. Mr Cunek was the deputy prime minister and minister for regional development up until his resignation in early November. He resigned when an investigation into whether he had accepted bribes as mayor of the north Moravian town Vsetin was reopened. The investigation has since been dropped and Mr Cunek has voiced his interest in returning to government. But on Thursday, the head of the Green Party’s club of deputies, Katerina Jacques, warned that all six Green MPs may well leave the coalition in protest, should Mr Cunek return. The government coalition would fall if as many as four Green MPs decided to walk out.

A poll conducted by the Median agency and released on Thursday showed that if elections were to be held this month, then the Green Party would fall short of the 5% share of the vote required to be represented in parliament. The Greens, who are currently one of the partners in the governing coalition, would receive 4.4% of votes cast, the poll suggests. The opposition Social Democrats would win an election held this month with 35% of the electorate’s support, while the governing Civic Democrats would come second with 31%. Pollsters said the Greens’ poor result was down to the fact that those who had voted Green in the past as an act of protest were now increasingly likely to vote for no one at all at the next election.