Prague- Moldova and its rebel province of Transnistria could find a peaceful way out of their dispute, Moldovan Prime Minister Zinaidu Greceanii said Tuesday.

"We can't imagine a solution to the conflict other than a peaceful one," she said after meeting her Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek in Prague.

Greceanii said Moldova continued to believe in solving the territorial dispute with Transnistria in talks brokered by Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Prague - Czech-Canadian shoe tycoon Tomas J Bata died suddenly in Toronto on Monday at the age of 93, the Czech-based Tomas Bata Foundation said.

Bata had presided over a worldwide family footwear empire for several decades following World War II.

The iconic Czechoslovak pre-war business was founded by his father in Bata's native town of Zlin in 1894.

The Bata factories in the then Czechoslovakia were seized by the state after World War II, but the shoe-making clan managed to revive the business elsewhere.

Prague- Thieves have stolen a 13-metre iron footbridge in eastern Czech Republic with the probable intention of selling it for scrap, local police said on Monday.

"They cut it up with an oxy-fuel torch and took it away," said police spokeswoman Alena Nedelnikova.

Theft of metal for scrap, driven by soaring global scrap-metal prices, has plagued the Czech Republic for years but in recent months thieves appear bolder than ever.

In April, scrap-metal sellers snatched more than 800 bronze name- tablets from the Theresienstadt Holocaust memorial cemetery.

Prague  - The real estate developer Orco Property Group SA, which is active in central and eastern Europe, has plunged into the red amid stagnating real estate markets in parts of eastern Europe and the worldwide credit crisis.

The Luxembourg-registered group reported a loss of 14.1 million euros (20.6 million dollars) in the first half of 2008, down from net profit of 55 million (80.7 million dollars) in the same period the previous year.

Prague- Czech President Vaclav Klaus Thursday pardoned a man who tried to sell a hip joint he claimed was the president's in an online auction.

The bones were offered for a minimum of 35,000 koruny (2,100 dollars) in late June, nearly a month after Klaus underwent hip replacement surgery.

The website quickly removed the offer by Premysl Donat, a 54-year- old trained lawyer, who also makes products for the blind.

Prague- Czech and US negotiators are likely to complete talks on
the second missile shield treaty in September, Czech Defence Minister
Vlasta Parkanova said Thursday.

Parkanova said she also expects the center-right cabinet of Prime
Minister Mirek Topolanek to discuss the so-called Status of Forces
Agreement later the same month.

The pact defines conditions for stationing US troops at a radar
base Washington wants to build as part of its planned missile defence
system in a military zone one hour's drive south-west of Prague.

The agreement complements a diplomatic deal signed in the Czech
capital by the top Czech and US diplomats, Karel Schwarzenberg and
Condoleezza Rice, in early July.