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Thursday brought an unexpected twist in the complicated negotiations on forming a new government. In an attempt to gain the upper hand in a long-running tussle with the right since June's inconclusive general elections, Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek pulled the plug on talks with the Civic Democrats and turned to the Christian Democrats as a potential coalition partner.

Earlier this week, Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan introduced plans for the Czech Republic to establish an anti-terrorism centre. Police and intelligence services have been advocating such a move for months, saying that there needs to be a centralized unit in this country working to fight terrorism. Such a centre would be charged with collecting and sorting information about terrorism-related issues, and communicating with partners abroad to ensure an effective exchange of information. Yet the idea hasn't been received with much enthusiasm from

Two Czech football clubs have failed to progress in the third and final qualifying round for club football's most prestigious championship, the Champions League. Ahead of their game, few gave tiny Mlada Boleslav much chance at beating Turkey's Galatasaray already up a number of goals on aggregate, but there were hopes on Wednesday that Slovan Liberec might pull through. They faced Spartak Moscow in the Russian capital. Fifteen minutes before time it was close. In the drizzling rain, both sides were tied 1:1 - a situation that would have seen Liberec

Dramatic headlines in some Czech papers this week warned of an "illegal car race" heading for Prague which will leave the city overrun by rusty wrecks, turning it into a giant scrap yard. The reason: the rally crossing six states is called "Czech Wrecks 2006" and cars taking part in it must not be worth more than 100 pounds.

Prime Minister designate Mirek Topolanek has set until the end of next week as a deadline to try and reach a deal with the Social Democrats on support for his proposed minority Civic Democrat government. It would be an understatement to say that the devil is in the details, and sticking points have been several. Almost three months after the election ended in parliamentary deadlock, it is still unclear when the country will see a new government.

With the increasing availability of different texts in electronic form, copyright violation has become easier - but also easier to track down. Experts from Masaryk University in the city of Brno have now launched a system that can find out within seconds whether a student has used a part of someone else's dissertation or essay in their work, by comparing the documents stored in the university's information system.

State-run Czech Airlines posted a 773 million crown loss in the first half of the year, bringing its overall debt to half its basic capital. The company's management said on Tuesday it could not weather the storm without a massive financial injection from the state.

On Tuesday evening, about 150 people attended a demonstration on Prague's Peace Square—or Namesti Miru. The gathering was organized by the Humane Party, a movement which includes numerous factions all united by their desire to prevent a possible U.S. anti-missile base on Czech territory.

Late into Monday hundreds of Czechs tourists - including many children - were among those at risk at a resort on Greece's Chalkidiki peninsula where a forest fire broke out following days of intense heat and an extensive dry spell. Strong winds fanning the flames soon saw the fire spread along a nine kilometre area leading to some panic and hasty evacuations.

Monday marked the 38th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops in 1968. Even though the last Soviet soldier left the country fifteen years ago, the memory of the invasion is still being kept alive 38 years on, also thanks to music. To mark the anniversary, a street in Prague was named after one of the musical icons of the time, the protest song writer and singer Karel Kryl.