Tuesday News Briefing

NEWS

MISSING Austrian authorities have joined the search for a 9-year-old Czech girl who has been missing for almost two months, Radio Prague reports today. Austrian media published the girl's description Dec. 6 after a request from Czech police. A spokesman for Austrian police denied police had any information of an Austrian connection to the case. The girl was last seen Oct. 13 in the Prague neighborhood of Troja making her way home from school.

MEMORIAL Local councilors in Dobronin say they will vote early next year on a German request for a permanent memorial at the site of a mass grave, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reports today. The site in the Moravian town is suspected to have been a mass grave for ethnic Germans allegedly murdered by Czechs in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Detectives are still investigating the circumstances of the deaths of those found in the grave, which was unearthed in September.

MARKETS Travel publisher Lonely Planet has ranked Prague's Christmas market among the top five in Europe, Radio Prague reports today. The company placed the Prague markets alongside those in Cologne, Vienna, Bruges and Strasbourg, calling the Czech capital's event a "Gothic winter fairy tale" in a recent blog post. Market organizers told the station the recommendation was like getting a Michelin star.

BUSINESS

NUCLEAR The Czech Republic and U.S. signed a declaration on bilateral cooperation in nuclear energy Dec. 6 Trade and Industry Minister Martin Kocourek and his counterpart, Gary Locke, agreed on a cooperation that would be scientific and commercial in nature. Kocourek told journalists after the meeting that the U.S. company Westinghouse may consider itself a favorite in the tender to complete Czech nuclear plant Temelín.

TELECOM Falcon Group plans on selling 100 percent of its stake in České Radiokomunikace to funds led by Macquarie of Australia for 574 million euros, the biggest telecommunications deal in the past four years in the Czech Republic. Mid Europa, the company that owns 75 percent of the Falcon Group, will keep the T-Mobile stake, according to the daily Hospodářské noviny. The Anti-Monopoly Office has yet to approve the deal.

HUNGARY A Moody's ratings cut has put Hungary five levels below the Czech Republic, after the ratings agency cut Hungary's bond ratings by two levels to Baa3 with a negative outlook. Moody's cited short-term budget measures enacted by the government that doesn't solve its finances in the long term.

WEATHER

Prague, Czech Republic Dec. 7. Snow. High: 1 C. Low: -1 C.