Daily news summary

Christian Democrats agree coalition with STAN party of mayors and independents

Czech Christian Democrats have decided to push ahead with a coalition with the STAN party of mayors and independents looking ahead to upcoming parliamentary elections. The move was cleared after delegates from across the country met in Brno to discuss partnership and even integration possibilities with other centre parties. Some party leaders have voiced concern about losing their identity. The discussions were focused on the mayors and independents party, STAN. It’s leadership earlier in the week approved the leadership to launch talks with the Christian Democrats with a view to the upcoming parliamentary elections due in October. STAN leader Petr Gazdik attended the Brno meeting and said that an integrated centre party could be a viable alternative to the biggest Czech political parties. STAN was previously in partnership with the centre-right TOP 09 party. The Christian Democrats are the junior coalition government party. They won just short of 7 percent support and 14 seats in the previous lower house elections after making a comeback after earlier being eliminated from the lower house in the 2010 elections.

Confidence slips in president, climbs in government

Confidence in the Czech president slipped in January but that in the Czech government rose, according to the latest by the agency CVVM. Confidence in president Miloš Zeman dropped by three percentage points to 53 percent. That in the government rose on the other hand by three percentage points to 42 percent. Confidence in parliament climbed four percentage points to 31 percent. Czechs describing themselves as content with the political situation rose by five percentage points but still only reached 22 percent.

Czech foreign minister offers Serbian participation in 1918 centenary celebrations

Czech foreign minister offers Serbian participation in 1918 centenary celebrations Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek has completed a trip to the Serbian capital Belgrade where he met with his counterpart Ivica Dačić. The Czech minister stressed the importance of Serbia for overall peace in the Balkans and in Central Europe and offered help to pave the way for Serbia joining the European Union. Lubomír Zaorálek proposed that Serbia take part in the Czech celebrations of the 100 years since the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. 1918 is also the anniversary of the creation of Yugoslavia, which was an early ally and partner of Czechoslovakia.

Czech police probe substantial bank account hacking cases

Police in the Western spa city of Karlovy Vary are investigations that hackers got into the account of a local businessmen and took out around 500,000 crowns. The businessmen says the attack probably occurred when he was on holiday in Africa and using a local wi-fi connection. He received warnings four times that attempts were made to hack his e-mail. Later he found cash from his own bank account had been transferred into a bit coin account. Police have been dealing with many similar attacks. Recently they were called to deal with the attempts by one gang to get pin codes and passes over social media sites. As a result they were able to steal around 8.0 million crowns.

Czechs go down 0:3 in Davis Cup against Australia

In tennis, the Czech team have gone down an irretrievable 3:0 in the first round Davis Cup tie against Australia in Melbourne. In the doubles, Jiří Vesely and Jan Šátral lost in straight sets to the Australian pairing of Sam Groth and John Peers 3:6, 2:6, and 2:6. The Czechs had already lost their opening singles ties. The Czech team will now face play-offs to remain in the top 16 group of countries in the World Group. The weakened Czech team was without Tomáš Berdych and Lukáš Rosol.

Petr Čech sees three goals past him as Arsenal lose to Chelsea

Czech goalkeeper Petr Čech saw three goals go past him in the 3:1 away defeat against Chelsea. Čech was largely help responsible for a soft third goal against the visitors by his old club. Arsenal pulled back a goal in the last seconds. The match had been billed as a must win for Arsenal to get their league title chances back on track. Chelsea now head the league by 12 points with Tottenham still to play.

Weather

The weather on Sunday is likely to be cloudy with the possibility of sunny intervals, especially in the south of the country. Top daytime temperatures will range between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius.