News

President Vaclav Klaus and Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda will be the only Czech top officials who will join heads of state and pilgrims for the funeral of Pope John Paul II on Friday in what is expected to be the biggest gathering at the Vatican in its history. The Czech Republic will hold a day of mourning on Friday, with state and black flags flying at half mast on public buildings.

Named the world's smallest dog in 1999, a Chihuahua just 15 cm tall, died of natural causes and not medical malpractice as its owner claimed, a Czech court ruled on Thursday. The court in the eastern city of Olomouc dismissed a one million crown (43,100 dollar) damages claim by the dog's owner against a veterinarian who, she said, gave her pet an injection that left it paralysed. The Chihuahua, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest dog in 1999, had to be put down in 2000. The owner claimed the damages as a loss of earnings for the deals that had been set up for the dog, called Ondra. The judge, citing expert testimony, ruled that death was the result of a birth defect, hydrocephalus, or water in the head.

A British taxi company has begun actively recruiting drivers in the Czech Republic due to a shortage of applicants in the United Kingdom. Station Taxis, which is based in Darlington, County Durham, has even set up a training school in Prague. Three Czech drivers are now working for the British firm and another four are expected to arrive in the U.K. by the end of the month.

President Vaclav Klaus said on Monday he would not accept the resignations of the four ministers who have given notice in recent days, until it becomes clear exactly which other ministers intend to remain in the Cabinet.

The Minister of Information Technology, Vladimir Mlynar, tendered his resignation on Saturday, following the results of a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Stanislav Gross the previous day. The ministers of foreign affairs, the environment, and transportation resigned early last week when their party, the Christian Democrats, withdrew from the governing coalition in protest over Mr Gross' refusal to step down following the release of controversial information about his personal finances and the business dealings of his wife.

Mr Mlynar, a member of the centre-right Freedom Union, said he would not remain in a government that relied on the tacit support of the Communists; Mr Gross survived the no-confidence vote only because the Communist deputies abstained from it. The prime minister has promised to call for a parliamentary vote of confidence in the minority government he now leads, but a date for this vote has not yet been set.

President Vaclav Klaus told journalists on Monday that calls to link that vote with the passage of certain legislation would amount to an unacceptable delay in holding the vote, of perhaps months.