PRESTIGE Doctors enjoy the most prestige in Czech society, according to a survey carried out last month by the CVVM agency. The next most respected professions are scientists and university professors. Priests, parliamentary deputies and cleaning personnel rank the lowest.

ANTI-CORRUPTION The Interior Ministry said Oct. 23 that it wants to stamp out corruption and improve the country's reputation abroad by setting up a special anti-corruption line. The project is in cooperation with the nongovernmental organization Transparency International. The anti-corruption line will go into effect Jan. 1, 2007, and help centralize corruption investigations in this country, the ministry says.

NUCLEAR Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek advocated developing more nuclear power facilities in a news conference Oct. 23, urging the EU to continue reducing its dependence on oil and gas from Russia. Topolánek, who has failed to form a working government, warned that Russia has a tendency to "extort" the EU by threatening to cut off its westbound supplies.

DESECRATION A Jewish cemetery was vandalized in Žamburk, east Bohemia, police said Oct. 23. Spokeswoman Eva Sichrová said that about 50 tombstones were toppled over the weekend in the 18th-century cemetery, which lies 120 kilometers (74.4 miles) east of Prague. The site, which no longer hosts burials, was completely renovated in the 1990s but now has several broken headstones.