Prague - Czech and US negotiators opened three days of talks Wednesday on a treaty that defines status of US troops to be stationed at a planned US missile-shield radar base on Czech soil, the Czec

Brasilia - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to start a four-day visit this week to the Netherlands and the Czech Republic on a tour focused on ethanol and other bio-fuels, a sector in which Brazil is a global leader.

Brazilian presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said Monday that Lula will tell European leaders that bio-fuels are "a cleaner alternative that causes less harm to the environment."

Lula's official visit to the Netherlands is scheduled to start Thursday. The Brazilian president plans to visit The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam and will meet with Dutch Queen Beatrix and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Prague - A US-Czech deal to place an anti-missile radar in the former East Bloc nation sparked resistance Friday among a junior governing party that may hold the key to the plan's parliamentary approval.

The Greens have warned that they will approve the US project only if it is clear that it will become part of NATO anti-missile defences in the future.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's centre-right government has a slim lower-house majority and the six Green lawmakers could be crucial.

NATO leaders agreed Thursday at a summit in Bucharest "to explore ways" of integrating the planned US missile shield in Czech Republic and Poland "with any future NATO-wide missile defence architecture."

Prague, Oct 20 : Czech archaeologists have uncovered a part of a half-metre high statue of a woman dating back to 7,000 years in Masovice, South Moravia area of the Czech republic.