Press Review | All stories

The papers' cover pages today focus on a cross-cut of events from the Czech Republic to around the world: Pravo's cover photograph shows NATO Secretary General George Robertson clinking glasses with Prime Minister Milos Zeman in anticipation of November's NATO summit in Prague, Lidove noviny goes with a golden Oscar in preparation for the Academy Awards, and Mlada fronta Dnes shows a picture of a small boy playing with a gun replica, after yet another suicide attack in Israel.

The governing Social Democrats are not going to like what they see on the front page of today's Lidove noviny. Foreign investors in the Czech Republic are so dissatisfied with the level of corruption in this country that they are preparing to file an official complaint with the EU enlargement commissioner Gunter Verheugen, says the paper.

Wednesday's front pages cover a wide variety of issues, perhaps the most interesting of them being a report in Lidove noviny that the opposition Civic Democrats have declared war on environmentalists. If the party comes to power after the elections in June, they want to strip the environmental lobby of state funding.

Both Lidove noviny and Mlada fronta Dnes devote much of their front pages to the Czech chemical unit from the North Bohemian town of Liberec, which left for Kuwait on Monday night. Whilst Lidove noviny features a photograph of the soldiers in their new gear - special uniforms and boots for desert operations, the photo in Mlada fronta Dnes focuses on Czech President Vaclav Havel's final words of encouragement to the unit at Prague's Ruzyne airport on Monday night.

After a fairly quiet weekend on the home scene it is the Barcelona summit which dominates Monday's front pages. "The EU launches an economic revolution" , "the EU promises work for all" and the "EU aims to overtake the US" -those are some of the attention grabbing headlines splashed across today's front pages.

All of today's papers are carrying the story of Helena Cermakova, sentenced to three years in prison for criminal negligence in the death of her five-year-old daughter Tereza, who she accidentally smothered while in an alcoholic stupor. Mlada fronta Dnes features the teary- eyed Cermakova on its cover with the caption "Being a mother? She failed".

Many of today's papers carry the story of the mysterious death of Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's postwar foreign minister. "It was murder," writes Lidove noviny, quoting a forensic expert. The paper also features an interview with Jan Masaryk's secretary, Antonin Sum, who maintains Masaryk committed suicide.

A colourful mix of domestic and foreign stories jostle for attention on today's front pages. There are snapshots of President Havel celebrating the third anniversary of the Czech Republic's admission to NATO at army headquarters in Prague, with Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik at his side. The latter's gloomy looks are attributed to the fact that after an upbeat speech he was forced to field reporters' questions about an alleged information leak at the defense ministry and the resignation of one of his deputies.

A sombre George W. Bush appears on the front pages of all the Czech dailies today: "Remove the Parasites" reads a headline in Lidove noviny, quoting President Bush as he unveiled phase two of the "war on terrorism." Closer to home, Pravo features a photo of Monday's demonstration by construction industry employees, who are calling for five weeks of annual leave and a six percent pay rise.

All today's Czech daily newspapers carry shocking reports of an accident when a dog killed a small child in the street. This sad news shares front page space with another round of violence in the Middle East, analyses of terrorist threats and a list of countries at which the United States is reportedly planning to aim its nuclear arsenal.