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Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda has said US soldiers found guilty of abusing prisoners in Iraq should be brought to justice quickly. However, said Mr Svoboda, the scandal should not threaten the efforts of democrats in the "fight against terrorism". He added that it was important to hand the administration of Iraq over to the Iraqis as soon as possible.

Restaurant owners are planning further protests against a VAT increase which has forced many of them to increase their prices, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported on Tuesday. One of the protest organisers said around 2,500 people would hold a demonstration in front of the Office of the Government during the first week of June. Following a recent VAT rise restaurant prices have increased by between five and ten percent.

Reports say the Czech Republic's recent accession to the EU has hit the prostitution business in the border regions; with truck drivers no longer having to queue at the border for hours, fewer of them are availing of the services of prostitutes. The daily Pravo on Tuesday quoted the mayor of Dubi as saying many brothels in the border town had already shut down or were up for sale.

The police have arrested three more football referees in connection with a bribery scandal which is being described as the worst in the history of Czech football. After a senior official at Synot football club and two referees were arrested last week, on Monday the police arrested three more officials on suspicion of fixing a match in which Synot beat Blsany. The police are looking into the results of every Czech first division game played since the beginning of the season last August.

The opposition Communist Party have said they will support the ruling Social Democrats over a constitutional bill on referendums. Social Democrats deputy chairman Zdenek Skromach said on Tuesday his party would accept the support of the Communists. The Social Democrats have submitted several referendum bills in the past, and this time are doing so in connection with a vote on a possible European Union constitution. The opposition Civic Democrats say linking the bill with the EU constitution is blackmail.

The EU constitution in its draft form is too complicated for ordinary citizens to understand, former Czech president Vaclav Havel said on Monday. Mr Havel, who was in Brussels to take part in EU enlargement celebrations, welcomed steps to introduce a European constitution but noted it needed to be formulated in simple terms in order to assure citizens voting in referenda know exactly what they are voting for. Mr Havel added that he would like to see a constitution that one-tenth as long and uncomplicated enough for children to study it in schools.

Canada are playing Sweden in the final of the World Ice Hockey Championships in Prague on Sunday night. Canada - the defending world champions - beat Slovakia 2:1 on Saturday, setting up a clash with Sweden, who beat the United States 3:2 in the other semi-final.

The chairwoman of the monitoring committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Commission, Josette Durrieu, has had a meeting with representatives of the Romany community in the north Moravian city of Ostrava. After Sunday's discussion, she said Czech authorities had done a lot to improve the situation of Romanies, but a lot more remained to be done. Ms Durrieu also said Czech Romanies needed to decide what they wanted to achieve and take more control of their own destinies.

Elsewhere in the Czech capital, around 200 people attended a ceremony at the Olsansky cemetery in memory of Soviet soldiers who died during World War II. Until 1991, May 9 was celebrated in Czechoslovakia - as in Russia - as the end of World War II in Europe. Now it is marked in the Czech Republic a day earlier, on May 8.

President Vaclav Klaus has accepted the resignation of Constitutional Court judge Jiri Malenovsky. Mr Malenovsky became the Czech representative at the European Court of Justice on May 1, the day the Czech Republic became a member of the European Union. Based in Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice interprets and implements EU law, and is the Union's supreme legal institution.