DETOUR

Some residents of towns and villages are complaining about trucks using their roads to avoid paying the electronic toll that took effect Jan. 1, the daily Lidové noviny reported Jan. 12. Directions about how to bypass the toll system appeared on the Internet shortly after collection began. Truck drivers also say they can wrap the truck's onboard electronic reader in aluminum foil so that the system does not recognize them.

FOREIGNERS

As many as 185,075 foreigners from 158 countries worked legally in the Czech Republic at the end of 2006, roughly 13,000 more than the year before, according to data on the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry's Web site. Roughly 117,000 workers were from European Union countries, and Switzerland. The ministry estimates that tens of thousands of foreigners work in the country illegally.

POWER Energy giant ČEZ is considering building a new coal-fired power plant worth roughly 30 billion Kč ($1.4 billion) in Poland, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported Jan. 11. ČEZ has asked two Polish coal companies to supply it with coal from 2014 to 2054. A company spokesman said such a power station would supply the Polish market.

MOBILE

A fourth mobile phone operator is likely to enter the Czech market. The Czech Telecommunications Office has granted the code for the network and the numbers to the new operator, the news server iDnes reported Jan. 10. The name of the new cell phone operator has not yet been announced, but the license is held by MobilKom.

RESIGNATION

Former Defense Minister Karel Kühnl resigned as chairman of the supervisory board at arms maker Aero Vodochody Jan. 10, two days after accepting the position. As defense minister, Kühnl played a major role in Aero's privatization and sale to Penta. Euro reported that he would be named Czech ambassador to Croatia.

SEARCH

Seznam, the largest Czech Internet search engine, increased its profits to 480 million Kč last year, up 113 million Kč from 2005, company founder Ivo Lukačovič said on his Web site. Visits to Seznam's main page rose 50 percent on the year to 2.1 million per day, according to November figures. Rival portal Centrum had 451,000 users, and Atlas registered 187,000 visitors per day.

POWER

Czech power plants will be unable to produce enough electricity to cover the entire domestic consumption in 2020, an expert group of the Industry and Trade Ministry, power company ČEZ and the Nuclear Research Institute found Jan. 15. The group advocated constructing new nuclear power plants. The current coalition has agreed not to support any new nuclear units.

TRAVELERS

National air carrier Czech Airlines transported nearly 5.5 million passengers last year, a growth of 4.7 percent on the year and a record high, spokeswoman Daniela Hupáková said in a press release Jan. 15. The airline passed the 5 million-passenger mark in 2005. Still, it is expected to sustain a 500 million Kč loss for 2006.