Prague - Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's government faced a parliamentary confidence motion Wednesday, just as the Czech Republic prepares to take over the EU presidency in January.

The left-leaning opposition sought the vote on ousting the government after Topolanek's Civic Democrats, in power since January 2007, were weakened by a defeat in regional elections Saturday.

Wellington, Oct 22 : Ice cream tastes better when it''s licked from a cone than eaten from a spoon, according to an expert.

The question of whether ice cream tastes better from a cone than when eaten from a spoon was a tricky hypothesis to prove.

Now, Kay McMath, a sensory scientist from Massey University and chief judge for the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards, has provided a scientific explanation to support the idea that ice cream tastes better when it''s licked, reports the NZPA.

London, Oct 22 : A new survey has revealed that one in four trainee teachers struggle to spell even simple words.

The finding was made after more than 11,000 teachers, who started at schools this year, failed a basic test.

The inability to spell was just another finding added to the shocking statistic that was revealed last year after a whopping 20,000 were found to be duffers in arithmetic.

The student teachers were given an online test, which they can do as many times as they like, or until they pass, and it was discovered from the first test itself that the number of failures was 16 per cent higher than seven years ago.

Tokyo - Japanese electronics company NEC Corp lowered its earnings estimates for the full year through March as slowing markets caused sluggish sales of its computers and mobile phones.

Amsterdam  - Dutch police have arrested two blackmailers who are suspected of trying to sell a USB memory stick with sensitive information that had gone missing back to the military, the Defence Ministry confirmed Wednesday.

Officers from the national police force (KM) seized the two men as they turned up for the scheduled handover of money, the ministry said.

The two men, aged 28 and 29, had threatened to hand the electronic data over to the press if the military did not pay them, De Telegraaf newspaper reported.

The memory stick is believed to have contained information about cargo flights to Dutch troops in Afghanistan.

The men, who now face charges of blackmail and fraud, found the memory stick at a car wash.