Press Review

The war in Iraq continues to dominate all the papers today, leaving little space to domestic news. Remarks on the recently released list of former communist secret police collaborators, an analysis of what's to come in the upcoming party congress of the Social Democrats, and the country's anti-chemical unit in Kuwait are the main Czech stories.

MLADA FRONTA DNES writes that the Czech government is preparing an amendment to a law, which would increase the opportunities for Czechs to have cases more thoroughly dealt with by Czech courts. Any verdict made in favour of a Czech citizen by the European Court of Human Rights against a ruling already made by a Czech court holds no weight under the current law. The paper says that the amendment would require domestic courts to re-open cases that are appealed and won by Czechs in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Both LIDOVE NOVINY and PRAVO write that the US President George Bush has offered 15 million dollars to cover part of the Czech Republic's expenses in the Persian Gulf. Although the United States has already contributed financially to the deployment of the Czech anti-chemical unit to Kuwait, the further fifteen million dollars should be used to cover current costs and the possible deployment of a Czech field hospital to the Gulf as part of peace operations once the war comes to an end.

In a separate article, the papers also report on Wednesday's announcement by the Czech Army that an elite specialised unit was prepared to be sent to the Gulf within 24 hours to protect the anti-chemical unit, if it has to enter Iraq to provide humanitarian aid or reduce the damages caused if weapons of mass destruction are used.

LIDOVE NOVINY also features a new Radio Prague initiative on its front page. "Messages for Czech soldiers sound through Kuwaiti air waves" reads a headline referring to a new five minute programme launched by Radio Prague's Czech section on Wednesday. A special telephone has been set up to record messages to the Czech soldiers currently stationed in Kuwait from their friends and family, which are then broadcast on Radio Prague. The soldiers can tune in either on short wave or via the Internet. The paper quotes Radio Prague's Director Miroslav Krupicka who says that talks are currently underway with Slovakia to add an extra five minutes to the Radio Prague programme with messages for the Slovak soldiers.

The Iraqi secret service planned an attack on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters in Prague, says PRAVO. The paper reports on a BBC interview with Czech intelligence chief Jiri Ruzek who admits the terrorist threat was one of the reasons why the Foreign Ministry recently expelled five Iraqi diplomats. According to Mr Ruzek, the Iraqi secret service in Prague was given the task to significantly reduce the radio station's broadcasts to Iraq. "We managed to get a hold of clear scenarios that were drawn up to meet this goal... one of which even included a terrorist act", the paper quotes Mr Ruzek as saying.

MLADA FRONTA DNES features an article looking into the most popular names given to new-borns in the country. After four years, the chart of popular names among male babies has finally changed, the paper notes. For the first time since 1999, the name "Jan" has been pushed to second place by "Jakub". Tomas remains in third place and Martin in fourth. Among the girls, Tereza continues to top the charts, followed by Katerina and then Natalie. The paper also points to less traditional names that Czech parents have been taking a liking to - Szajan, Omar, Anamika, and Angelika.