Czech Republic

ČTK

Debts of Czech households at banks and financial institutions rose by CZK 5.487bn to CZK 1,017bn in July this year, which is a year-on-year increase of CZK 74.293bn, the Czech National Bank said Tuesday.

ČTK

Developer Orco Property Group made a profit of EUR 238m (almost CZK 6bn) at end-June this year against last year's loss of EUR 199m (CZK 5bn), the firm said Tuesday.

ČTK

Czech Nuclear Safety Authority (SUJB) chairwoman Dana Drábová is likely to assume a post on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as of September, the daily E15 writes Tuesday.

ČTK

Deputy Defence Minister Jaroslav Kopřiva (KDÚ-ČSL) was negotiating a kickback for an order worth hundreds of millions of crowns, iDnes.cz wrote on Tuesday, adding that daily Mladá fronta Dnes was monitoring his meetings for several months. Kopřiva was negotiating the purchase of mortars together with lobbyist Josef Jindra, iDnes reported. Both men have been dismissed and face criminal prosecution.

ČTK

The coordination of the EU affairs policy cannot be entrusted to a specially appointed state secretary because Prime Minister Petr Nečas should be responsible for it under the coalition agreement, the junior ruling TOP 09 said Tuesday.

ČTK

Czech secondary school students finished the best in Europe in a test of financial literacy organised by the NGO Junior Achievement along with the Citi Foundation, the two organisations' representatives have told ČTK.

ČTK

Václav Kasík has resigned as the Czech Philharmonic orchestra director and Culture Minister Jiří Besser (TOP 09) launched a competition for the vacated post, Besser's secretary Stanislav Brunclík told CTK Tuesday.

ČTK

The Czech police search for what may be hundreds of further mass graves of victims of post-war massacres of ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia, similar to the one recently uncovered near Dobronin, south Moravia, daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Tuesday.

ČTK

The Czech-German border crossing at Hřensko was closed tonight after a rock over the road moved for a second time within a few days, the police told ČTK Tuesday, but did not specify the length of the closure.

Prague - Slovak politicians and policemen only unwillingly admitted on Monday that the victims of the shooting massacre in Bratislava were Romanies because they quite rightfully feared the reaction of both the majority and the minority part of society, Martin Ehl writes in Hospodarske noviny today.