Prague - Czech Defence Minister Martin Bartak said Tuesday he has sacked two soldiers from the Czech army for wearing Nazi symbols during NATO's mission in Afghanistan.

Bartak also said he has suspended the commander who is responsible for all Czech military missions abroad.

The move came a day after the minister suspended the two soldiers and their contingent's commander following a Czech newspaper report on their misconduct.

Prague  - Caretaker Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Saturday indirectly turned down an offer by two major Czech political parties to become the Czech Republic's nominee for the European Commission.

The premier confirmed that the two largest parties, Mirek Topolanek's centre-right Civic Democrats and the rival Social Democrats of Jiri Paroubek, offered him the post in the European Union's executive.

Fischer, a statistician, said that he was in politics only temporarily and planned to return to his field after a general election in spring 2010.

Prague/Brno - The EU's Lisbon Treaty is expected to overcome a final hurdle on Tuesday when the Czech Republic's constitutional court decides whether to accept a legal challenge by members of the Czech parliament's upper chamber.

Should the judges in Brno decide that the Lisbon Treaty does not conflict with the Czech constitution, Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said he will ratify the reform treaty, the last EU head of state to do so.

Prague - Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer announced Monday that his caretaker government has decided to reject a lone bid for the country's red-ink carrier, Czech Airlines.

The cabinet opted to rescue the troubled carrier by safeguarding its cash flow and through severe cost cuts before putting the state's 91.5-per-cent share up for sale, Fischer said at a joint press conference with Finance Minister Eduard Janota.

Prague  - A middle-aged Czech woman, who died in hospital Thursday, is suspected to have been the country's first case of a swine flu-related death, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Further tests are to confirm on Friday whether the patient was infected with the H1N1 influenza virus, CTK news agency reported, citing a spokesman for the Czech Ministry of Health.

The woman was initially hospitalized with a serious chronic illness in western Czech city of Karlovy Vary, hospital spokeswoman Zdenka Markova said, declining to give details.

Prague  - Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said Monday that an exemption from a part of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, demanded by President Vaclav Klaus as a condition for his approval, should also work for Slovakia.

As a condition for his signature, the Czech president wants the Czech Republic to get an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, a part of the treaty, to prevent potential property claims by former Czechoslovakia's ethnic Germans expelled after World War II.

Prague - Nearly two-thirds of Czechs, or 65.8 per cent, back Czech President Vaclav Klaus' move to place new conditions on ratification of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, according to an opinion poll published Friday.

But another poll, whose results were released Thursday, found that 50 per cent of Czechs thought the president's opinions harmed the Czech Republic's reputation.

The signature of Prague's Eurosceptic president is the last obstacle to the Lisbon Treaty's coming into force.

Prague  - The Czech Republic's Constitutional Court is to hold its first hearing on a challenge to the European Union's reform Lisbon Treaty on October 27, a court official said Tuesday.

To come into force, the treaty requires the signature of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who is not allowed to ratify it until the court rules on the challenge.

The complaint was lodged by 17 Klaus supporters in the parliament's upper house, the Senate, on September 29.

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus discussed Thursday his country's ratification of the European Union's reform treaty with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country chairs the EU until December 31, the presidential office said.

The president's spokesman Radim Ochvat said in a statement that the two leaders debated the matter by telephone "at (Reinfeldt's) request", providing no further details on the content of their conversation.

Prague - The Czech Republic's unemployment rate climbed a notch to 8.6 per cent in September, up from 8.5 per cent in August, a result of falling foreign demand, government data showed Thursday.

The number of jobseekers registered with labour authorities, on which the rate is based, rose to 500,812 people, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs said.

The Central European country of over 10 million was not hurt by the global financial crisis but its export-driven economy has suffered from reduced demand from its markets, chiefly Western Europe.

Prague - Germany's former foreign minister made a historic return Wednesday to Prague, where 20 years ago he told East Germany's refugees they could travel West, to make a plea for European unity - and an implicit call to back the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, now 82, was visiting Prague to mark two decades since his announcement at the German embassy on September 30, 1989, of an agreement allowing East German refugees to travel to the West.

Prague - A group of European intellectuals and former politicians, including former Czech president Vaclav Havel, urged Europe on Tuesday to back Georgia in its territorial conflict with Russia.

The signatories, including French philosophers Bernard-Henri Levy and Andre Glucksmann, made the call in an open letter as a European Union commission prepares to issue its report on who is to blame for the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia.

Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a supporter of the Bush administration's plans to build missile defence bases in Eastern Europe, expressed regrets Friday that US President Barack Obama scrapped the project.

"Russia is testing us," Havel said in a statement posted on his website. "She is testing how much we fear her. It is a pity that we cannot complete this test to the end."

Prague  - The lower house of the Czech parliament on Friday changed the country's constitution with the aim of quickly triggering a snap general election, possibly as soon as November.

The house amended the constitution a day after the nation's Constitutional Court threw out an early poll that had been set for October 9-10.

The Brno-based court ruled that a one-off law, which enabled the cancelled October vote by shortening the legislature's four-year term, was unconstitutional.

Prague  - China protested Thursday against a Prague visit by Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and Uighur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer.

They arrived in the Czech capital to attend a conference on human rights and democracy in Asia.

Chen Jianjun, spokesman for the Chinese embassy, said the visits were aimed at "dividing the state and disrupting national unity."

Prague - The Czech Republic's Constitutional Court Thursday struck down an early general election set for early October, in a move that is likely to trigger a new snap poll in November.

The top court sided with a challenge against a one-off law that allowed a snap poll to be slated for October 9-10.

The judges cancelled the law and a separate presidential decree setting the election date, chief judge Pavel Rychetsky said.

Prague  - The Czech Republic's inflation slowed down another notch amid falling foreign demand, cooling to 0.2 per cent year-on-year in August, the lowest reading since September 2003, the Czech Statistics Office said Wednesday.

In July, the annual inflation rate stood at 0.3 per cent. Falling food and non-alcoholic beverage prices caused the inflation rate to decline by 0.2 per cent in August compared to the previous month, the office said.

Prague - A steam train left Prague Tuesday on a four-day journey to London in honour of Sir Nicholas Winton, a Briton who saved hundreds of Jewish children from deportation to Nazi concentration camps.

Winton, who turned 100 in May, saved 669 Jewish children from former Czechoslovakia on the eve of the World War II. He arranged to bring them to Britain by train and place them in foster families.

The Winton Train, as it is known, retraces the journey that had saved the children's lives seven decades ago.

Prague - Former European footballer of the year Pavel Nedved has decided to retire from the game rather than continue for another season.

"I have decided not to take up any of the offers of recent weeks and to end definitely my career as a player," he said Wednesday on his website.

The 36-year-old former Juventus, Lazio, Sparta Prague and Dukla Prague midfielder retired from international duty in August 2006 after winning 91 caps for the Czech Republic.

Prague - Czech tennis player Ivo Minar has tested positive for a banned substance, Czech Tennis Association president Ivo Kaderka told the CTK news agency on Monday.

Minar, ranked 66th in the world, was tested positive for pseudoephedrine after last month's Davis Cup quarter-final against Argentina, it was reported.

The Czech Republic won the tie 3-2 to reach the semi-finals but Minar lost his singles rubber against Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro.

CTK quoted Minar as denying "knowingly taking a banned substance."