Press Review | All stories

Under almost identical headlines, both MLADA FRONTA DNES and LIDOVE NOVINY lead with a story about the potential presidential candidates of the ruling Social Democrats, ex-Prime Minister Milos Zeman, ombudsman Otakar Motejl and former Justice Minster Jaroslav Bures.

A new case of BSE - the country's third - makes the front pages today - "Mad Cow Disease Returns" thunders MLADA FRONTA DNES. Right next to that story is a photo of Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, head of the Czech Catholic Church, holding up the skull of the Czech patron saint St Wenceslas. Thousands of Catholics attended a mass in Prague's St Vitus Cathedral on Saturday to celebrate St Wenceslas Day - or Day of Czech Statehood as the new holiday is officially known.

One of the prevailing themes in today's newspapers is that of increases, either in wages or in monthly pensions: PRAVO's lead story covers Education Minister Petra Buzkova's decision to raise Czech teacher's wages by 9 percent next year, 2 percent higher than other civil servants.

The dossier on Iraq published by the British government is the lead front page story in all the Czech papers. Iraq could reportedly launch weapons of mass destruction, within 45 minutes -says Mlada Fronta Dnes. According to the British dossier - these weapons are capable of reaching Europe and some of them could arrive on Czechoslovak-made military fighter planes sold to Iraq during the communist era.

The front pages today are dominated by a photo of two smiling former communist bosses, Jozef Lenart and Milos Jakes, walking free after a Prague court acquitted them of treason charges on Monday. MLADA FRONTA DNES comments on the verdict, saying that after a weeklong trial - and seven years after the charges were first pressed, the court ruled the two men were not to be punished for their activities in August 1968 immediately after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

German and Slovak elections without exception dominate all the headlines in today's Czech papers: Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder narrowly the victor thanks to the success of the Green Party in Germany, Mikulas Dzurinda successful in his bid to lead Slovakia for four more years with pro-European policies.

There is a wide mix of topics in today's Czech papers, many of them with a legal slant, but before we look at perhaps the top story in the news is President Vaclav Havel's trip to the United States. Mlada fronta Dnes features the president in a warm embrace with the former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who is herself of Czech descent.

The photo of President Vaclav Havel shaking hands with the US President George W. Bush in front of a fireplace dominates all today's front pages. Mlada fronta Dnes as well as Lidove noviny dedicate a whole page to Mr Havel's visit to the United States which is his last foreign trip before his term ends in four month's time.

The resolution of the government crisis of course features on all the front pages today - a picture of a smiling Vladimir Spidla in Mlada fronta Dnes says it all. Lidove noviny shows President Vaclav Havel and his wife Dagmar boarding a plane for the United States - now, it seems, he won't have to worry about catching an emergency flight home, to try and put together a new government.

Domestic news dominate today's front pages with three big stories jostling for attention: the deepening government crisis, the biggest bank robbery in the country's history and two former communist top officials charged with treason for their part in the 1968 Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia.