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The Czech public has donated almost 150 million crowns (around 5 million euros) to relief in Southeast Asia. A spokesperson for aid agency People in Need said it was the biggest collection to help overseas disaster victims in the history of the Czech Republic. The Czech government has sent 15 million crowns in aid, and pledged another 200 million for redevelopment in the region.

Telephone surveillance is not more common in the Czech Republic than in other European countries, according to a new report presented by police chief Jiri Kolar and Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan on Friday. It was commissioned on the instigation of President Vaclav Klaus, after a number of high profile cases of alleged phone tapping. Civic Democrat MP Jiri Bily says the study is not objective or independent because it was carried out by the police themselves; he has called on the Justice Ministry to begin a fresh inquiry.

The number of Czech citizens still unaccounted for in the wake of the Indian Ocean disaster fell to 13 on Friday. Seven of those who are missing are believed dead, though only one Czech fatality - a 24-year-old woman - has been confirmed so far.

Meanwhile, experts from the Prague police have been taking DNA samples from relatives of the seven Czechs believed to have died, the daily Pravo reported on Friday. The results of the DNA tests will be sent to the affected region, where they will be compared with tests carried out on victims of the disaster.

The Czech football manager, Karel Bruckner, has been named fourth best international trainer in the world in a poll by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Bruckner, who is 65, led the Czech squad to third place in the European Championships in Portugal last summer.

The Czech supermodel, Petra Nemcova, who survived the tsunami disaster in Thailand with serious injuries, will arrive in Prague on Thursday night. The 25-year-old swimsuit model held onto a palm tree for eight hours before she could be rescued and taken to hospital with a pelvic fracture and internal injuries. Petra Nemcova will continue her recovery in the Czech Republic. Her boyfriend, British photographer Simon Atlee, is still missing.

A second group of children who survived the three-day hostage crisis at a school in Beslan, southern Russia, last week will arrive in the Czech Republic next week for a recuperative visit. The children will be staying at a sanatorium for four weeks to help them recover from shock. They were supposed to have arrived on Wednesday but the Russian Red Cross refused to pay for their airline tickets. The national air carrier Czech Airlines will send a special plane for them next week.

Over a week after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Southeast Asia, one Czech has been confirmed dead and the number of Czechs still unaccounted for remains at 15. There is strong suspicion that seven of them are also dead. The Czech government has pledged to donate 15 million crowns, eight million of which has already been released, for immediate relief to the affected areas. A further 200 million crowns (6.7 million euros) is to be offered for the restoration of the regions.

Czech charitable organisations have raised over one hundred million crowns (over 3 million euros) and the 19 percent VAT deducted from donor SMS messages will also be given to Asia. Some Czech banks have decided to forgo certain service charges on donations.

Of the Czech tourists who have returned from the stricken areas, eleven were taken to Prague's Bulovka hospital to undergo thorough medical check-ups. Four of them, suffering from diarrhoea, were hospitalised after doctors feared they had contracted infectious diseases. On Thursday, all patients were confirmed healthy.

The Czech state will have to let go of a number of state grants in order to be able to co-finance projects covered by EU funds. By 2007, the Czech Republic will have to release some 47 billion Czech crowns (1.5 billion euros) a year for this purpose, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

The Czech Under 20 ice hockey team have come third in the junior World Championships in Grand Forks, USA, after beating the USA 3:2 on Tuesday. The game was decided in overtime by a goal from Czech captain Petr Vrana.

Following a Cabinet session on Tuesday the Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said the government was prepared to earmark up to 200 million crowns (6.7 million euros) towards the restoration of the devastated region. Last week the Czech government pledged 15 million crowns for immediate relief to the tsunami disaster area. Eight million has already been released.

By Wednesday Czechs have raised more than 90 million crowns (3 million euros) in individual donations to public collections called by aid organisations.