Press Review | All stories

Among the stories making the front pages in the Czech dailies today are the funeral of the much-respected Pavel Tigrid, the unveiling of the new Skoda car, the Roomster, and the football fever which has gripped the country ahead of Wednesday night's big game against the Netherlands.

As the second anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks against US targets draws near, the papers are devoting an increasing amount of space to the fight against terrorism. Lidove Noviny has a front page report on US president George Bush's speech to the nation and his plans to ask Congress for more billions for the war against terrorism.

All papers today speculate on the future of the Middle East peace plan, which came under great pressure with the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Other stories featured on the front pages include the arrival of nine Iraqi children who have come to Prague to undergo heart surgery as part of a humanitarian aid programme, and the disclosure of a new video shot by a Czech construction worker during the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers two years ago.

The smiling face of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder features on the front pages of all of today's dailies, as Gerhard's plane touches down in Prague for a long-overdue visit. "Germans and Czechs are closer than ever before," writes Chancellor Schroeder in an exclusive interview for MLADA FRONTA DNES, his first ever for a Czech newspaper.

The man dominating the papers today is former mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, who arrived in the Czech Republic for the first time on Wednesday to participate in a two-day conference on the European Union in the Moravian city of Brno. His photo is splashed across all the front pages, with most papers speculating whether his next stop on the political ladder will be the White House. Locally, the papers offer a good mix of stories ranging from internal disagreement within the Social Democratic Party over whether or not to hold a referendum

Two American heroes liven up the front pages of today's papers which are otherwise heavy with financial concerns. They are Jessica Lynch, one of the US hostages in the war with Iraq who is to sell her story for a million dollars, according to Mlada Fronta Dnes, and Rudolf Guiliani, the former mayor of New York who appears on the front page of Pravo. Mr. Guiliani is the star at the European Union Days in Brno, the paper says and speculates as to whether the popular American will one day reside in the White House.

There is little doubt which story gets the most press in all of today's Czech papers and that is Monday's teachers' strike, the largest teachers' strike in the country's history. More than half of the Czech Republic's schools remained closed September 1st, with many children gaining an extra day of summer holidays. By contrast, the pictures in the dailies are traditional, taken at one of the schools that did open its doors - to no one less than President Vaclav Klaus. He wished first graders well, giving each a flower as they began their first

Two domestic stories dominate today's front pages - the teachers strike, which Lidove Noviny describes as the biggest teachers' protest in the country's history, and the death of the former culture minister, writer and journalist Pavel Tigrid in Paris.

A mixed bag in the papers today: most mention news that the "Sumperk railway blackmailer" is in police custody after being arrested in a phone booth - he was calling the daily with a fresh ransom demand when he was nabbed by police. Also making headlines today: Education Minister Petra Buzkova's failed attempt to avert strike action by teachers on Monday - the first day of the school year.

There are a wide variety of stories making the headlines in Thursday's dailies, though most carry front page photos of Mars, which is at its closest to the earth for 60,000 years. Pravo and Lidove Noviny have what appears to be the same photo, except in Pravo Mars is orange coloured and in Lidove Noviny it's red. The face of athletics star Roman Sebrle is also splashed across the dailies, after he came second in the decathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Paris.