Prague, July 11 - "The Mosquito Net", a film by Spanish director Augusti Vila, won Saturday the top prize, the Crystal Globe, at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival held for the 45th time in a Czech spa town of the same name.

The top award at the festival, which is known for its festive mood and youthful backpacking crowds, carries prize money of $30,000.

Prague - A fire in the control tower halted air traffic at Prague airport for five hours on Saturday, radio reports said.

The blaze broke out at around 5 am (0400 GMT), probably as a result of a cable defect. It was quickly extinguished, but smoke filled the room.

Before the smoke cleared, incoming flights were diverted to the German cities of Berlin and Dresden as well as to Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.

Operations were back to normal around 10 am. No one was injured in the blaze. (dpa)

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 - Former Czech football international Vladimir Smicer announced that he was ending his active career, reports said Tuesday.

Smicer, 36, a Slavia Prague veteran midfielder, said after a Monday game with Viktoria Plzen that a painful knee injury does not allow him to play as well as he wished to, Slavia's website said.

"My head and heart still want to (keep playing), but unfortunately my body is against it," the website cited him as saying after the Monday draw.

Prague  - The Czech Republic's unemployment rate fell a notch, to 8.5 per cent, in October, down from 8.6 per cent the previous month, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs said Monday.

The slight decline, however, does not signal an end to the economic crisis, analysts said.

The decrease in the number of job seekers registered with state labour authorities, a figure on which the ministry's unemployment rate is based, was seasonal, they said.

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 said Wednesday that President Vaclav Klaus verbally pledged to sign the European Union's reform treaty if the country's top court clears it and his latest condition is met.

"I have this guarantee. I have this assurance from the president from our yesterday's evening meeting," Fischer told reporters. "I do not have a reason to distrust it. I think that (there is no need) to draw a notary agreement between the premier and the president."

Prague  - The Czech Republic's Constitutional Court on Tuesday opened a hearing on a challenge to the European Union's reform Lisbon Treaty in a case widely expected to clear the way for the EU's grand reform aimed at boosting its global clout.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a treaty opponent whose signature is the last one needed before the pact becomes valid, is not allowed to ratify it before the court rules in the case.

It remains unclear whether the court will issue a verdict on the same day or adjourn the proceedings. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer has said that he does not expect the court to rule Tuesday given procedural steps that lie ahead.

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  - Prague is a dream destination for many tourists. The Charles Bridge, the castle and its old town district attract millions of tourists.

In the first half of this year, in fact, nearly 5 million people visited Prague, spending at least one night there, the tourism bureau in Prague said. But that's about 11 per cent less than the same period in 2008.

The economic crisis and the city's reputation as a tourist trap are damaging the Czech capital's image. But even so, a visit is worthwhile now for tourists who refuse to be misled.

Prague  - The Czech parliament's upper house on Monday passed an austerity package aimed at narrowing the Czech Republic's budget gap in 2010.

The package - already approved by the lower house in what was seen as an endorsement of Prime Minister Jan Fischer's caretaker government - allowed the cabinet to draft a belt-tightening budget for next year that takes account of the effects of the global economic crisis.

Prague  - Firefighters on Sunday recovered the bodies of four workers who were killed when a building collapsed in the Czech capital two days earlier, officials said.

Police had knowledge of those who worked at the site in Prague but would not release nationalities of the victims until experts identify their remains, spokeswoman Iva Knolova said.

Sources told the German Press Agency dpa that the workers were likely from other countries in Eastern European.

The workers were on the ground floor of the uninhabited building that was being renovated when four of its ceilings caved in on them on Friday.

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.