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President Klaus has temporarily put Prime Minister Petr Nečas in charge of the defence ministry. The move comes a day after Karolína Peake’s of the LIDEM party, from the post. Mr Nečas on Friday reinstated Vlastimil Picek to the position of first deputy minister; he said Mr Picek’s sacking by Ms Peake last week was a demonstration of “irresponsible dilettantism”, and said it was one of the reasons behind Ms Peake’s demise, after only eight days at the ministry.

Some 30 percent of Czechs believe in God, according to a new poll by the STEM agency. The survey suggests a 2-percent decrease compared to last year while in 1995, when the agency carried out first such poll, some 39 percent of those who took part said they believed in God. Some 34 percent of people said they were planning to visit a church during Christmas.

The Czech Telecommunications Institute will take more steps to regulate the country’s mobile services market, the institute said in a press release on Friday. The regulator found little competition on the market and said the four existing operators acted co-ordinately to keep up relatively high prices for mobile calling and other services. The institute wants to facilitate the entry of so-called virtual operators on the market, and is planning to introduce stricter regulation of whole-sale prices. A spokesman for Telefónica O2, the largest mobile operator in the country, said the firm would respect any decision by the regulator but said its assumptions were ungrounded as prices for private end users had decreased by nearly 40 percent of the last five years.

In related news, chairwoman of the LIDEM group Karolína Peake told the news website lidovky.cz on Friday her party had no interest in remaining part of the coalition. Ms Peake said the prime minister should have thought about the government’s future earlier when there was still time for negotiations, adding no cooperation with the Civic Democrats was possible in the current format.

Shopping is the main reason for the inhabitants of the west Bohemian and German border areas for the crossing the frontier between the two countries, according to a new study by West Bohemian University in Plzeň. The survey found that every other German visitor to the Czech Republic and more than two thirds of Czech visitors to Saxony came to shop. Czechs buy mostly groceries, cleaning products, cosmetics, clothes and shoes in Germany while Germans mainly come to buy fuel and tobacco products. On their shopping trips, Both Czechs and Germans spend between 50 and 100 euros on average.

President Václav Klaus on Friday signed into law government legislation that raises the two VAT rates by one percentage point to 15 and 21 percent, respectively. The legislation comes into force on January 1. The package also includes a seven-percent hike in income tax for high earners and cancels tax brakes for economically active retired people. The Czech government based the state budget for 2013 on revenues from the tax hikes; Mr Klaus signed it into law despite his objections; earlier this year he said raising taxes at a time of recession was an “economic suicide”. Analysts estimate that on average, the hikes will cost Czech families around 1,000 crowns each year.

The Schmallenberg virus, which causes birth defects and miscarriages in livestock has been for the first time detected in the Czech Republic, Czech Radio reported on Friday. The virus was found at two sheep farms in western Bohemia near the border with Germany. A spokesman for the Czech veterinary authority said the virus was only detected with sheep and not cows and other cattle.

Some of the nine presidential candidates will suspend their campaigns during the Christmas holidays, the news agency ČTK reported on Friday. The frontrunner, Jan Fischer, said people should have some time off politics during the upcoming holiday season while Foreign Minster Karel Schwarzenberg will spend Christmas with his family and will resume campaigning in the New Year. Independent candidate Táňa Fischerová said Christmas was a spiritual holiday with no room for politics. Jana Bobošíková and Vladimír Franz also said they would suspend their campaigns until next month.

The senior ruling Civic Democrats want to approach the coalition LIDEM group to discuss ways of saving the current government. After a meeting of Civic Democrat leadership on Friday, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said negotiations with the LIDEM party could start early next month. Mr Nečas also said party leadership backed his decision to dismiss LIDEM leader Karolína Peake from the post of the defence minister, a move that triggered the latest government crisis. In a reaction to Ms Peake’s dismissal, the LIDEM party called on its two other government ministers to step down as of January 10.

The police have charged the owner of two night clubs in central Prague, along with 14 other people, with organizing prostitution, a spokesman for the organized crime unit of the police said on Friday. The police said the people worked as an organized group that for several years profited from prostitution they organized in the clubs, located in Prague’s unofficial red-light district off the central Wenceslas Square. The charges were raised following a raid the clubs which took place last month. All the accused are Czech citizens; however, the 46-year-old alleged head of the group reportedly lives in Thailand. If convicted, the 15 people could be sentenced to ten years in prison.