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The right-wing opposition Civic Democrats have come out as clear victors in elections to a third of the upper house of the Czech parliament, the Senate, but they have fallen short of an absolute majority. Even before the vote-count was complete, it was clear that the ruling Social Democrats had failed to defend any of the three seats which they were contending in this weekend's run-offs. The smaller parties in the ruling coalition also sustained losses. There was disappointment too for the opposition Communists, who had nine candidates in the run-offs, but won in only one constituency. For the first time a Senator has been elected for the Green Party, the journalist Jaromir Stetina in Prague. The overall turnout was extremely low, at under 20 percent, the lowest in the history of Czech Senate elections.

Six central European countries, including the Czech Republic, have announced that they want to set up a joint explosives and ammunitions database. At a conference in Prague the countries' interior ministers said that the database would help in the fight against organized crime. The author of the initiative, Slovak Interior Minister, Vladimir Palko, said that a special international organization, similar in structure to Interpol, would be set up to oversee co-ordination of the project.

Passions flew on Friday at the opening night of a new production of the great 19th century Czech opera, The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana. Some members of the audience cried out in disapproval of a production that highlights the humour of the opera and rejects a historical or patriotic interpretation.

The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, was one of many state leaders and officials who attended the funeral of President Yasser Arafat on Friday morning in Cairo. Earlier, Mr Svoboda said that Mr Arafat had played a major role in the history of Palestine, stressing the Palestinian leader would be greatly missed by his people. Mr Svoboda added that the Nobel Peace Prize winner could be regarded as a controversial figure because of his role in the troubling Middle East conflict.

In the 1970s and 1980s communist Czechoslovakia provided political and financial support to the Palestine Liberation Organisation, as well as arms and military training. Mr Arafat visited former Czechoslovakia on several occasions.