Prague  - The Czech parliament's lower house Friday struck down direct fees for medical care, an unpopular public finance reform of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's government designed to curb waste in healthcare.

The leftist opposition, helped by several government lawmakers and independents, voted 97-92 to strike down the fees that were introduced in January. Four lawmakers abstained.

Prague  - The Czech parliament's lower house Friday rejected a government proposal outlining troop deployments abroad in 2009, in a move threatening troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Kosovo by March.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's government failed to muster the needed 101 votes in the house, which rejected the deployments in a 99- 75 vote.

Prague  - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's big test in 2009 will be juggling the nation's historic trans-Atlantic ties, his reserve toward the European Union and the task of chairing the EU.

Topolanek, whose country was occupied by Soviet troops during the Cold War, made it clear in 2008 that he sees strong US ties as the most reliable guard against Moscow.

In July, his government struck a deal with President George W Bush's administration to host a missile-defence radar base on Czech soil and was rewarded with visa-free US travel for its citizens.

Bratislava - Czech energy firm CEZ is to build a new nuclear power plant in Slovakia to help offset a closure of its two Soviet-era reactors, an official said Wednesday.

The Slovak leftist government of Prime Minister Robert Fico selected CEZ as its strategic partner for building a new unit in the Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear energy complex, Slovak Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek said.

Slovakia vowed to shut down two Soviet-era units in Jaslovske Bohunice by 2009 as part of its accession deal with the European Union, which the country of 5.3 million entered in 2004.

Prague - The Czech Republic's central bank Wednesday cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points in a bid to boost the country's economy which is bracing for a severe slowdown next year.

The Czech National Bank slashed the benchmark two-week repo to 2.25 per cent, the lowest level since October 2005 in a second dramatic cut in a row. The bank already cut the key rate by 75 basis points on November 6.

The cut brought the rate below that in the eurozone. The European Central Bank delivered a 75-basis-point cut on December 4, bringing the key rate in the 15 countries using the euro to 2.5 per cent.

Prague - A European Union court Tuesday annulled an EU-wide trademark for Anheuser-Busch's Bud beer, which has been contested by Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar NP.

The Luxembourg-based European Court of First Instance said in its ruling that the bloc's trademark registry, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), made mistakes when rejecting Budvar's complaint against Anheuser-Busch's registration.

Anheuser-Busch, which was taken over by Belgium's InBev earlier this year, can appeal the verdict to the European Court of Justice.