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The Czech communists have said they will not renounce their bid to have lower house lawmaker Zdeněk Ondráček head the committee which oversees the national police supervisory unit, GIBS.

The position of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia was repeated by the chairman of its lower house parliamentary group, Pavel Kovářik on Sunday on public broadcaster Czech Television.

Ondráček failed to be elected to the post last Friday although he was the sole candidate put forward. Some lawmakers have objected to the fact that as a member of the police he took part in the brutal repression of demonstrations against the communist regime at the end of the 1980s, including the protests that led to its overthrow in November 1989.

In football, former Czech international keeper Petr Čech moved onto a tally of 199 clean sheets in the Premier League after Arsenal’s 1:0 win against Newcastle United. The win moves Arsenal into the top four in the league. Čech was little tested during the match apart from a late rally by the Magpies.

He is likely to face a much tougher test in the league when Arsenal host a high scoring Liverpool team on December 22.

Around a quarter of Czech restaurants should be open over Christmas day, according to a survey by Internet restaurant and gastronomic guide, Restu.cz.

Those likely to be open will probably be at the top end of the market and in larger towns and cities. In Prague, the proportion of restaurants open could rise up to 35 percent. They traditionally offer special menus, often reserved in advance, for the occasion.

Around 53 percent of hotels are expected to be open, according to the site Hotel.cz.

The weather on Monday is expected to be cloudy with sunny intervals and the chance of snow showers in the west of the country. Top temperatures will range between minus one and two degrees Celsius.

The incoming Minister for Regional Development, Klára Dostálova, has said that constructing social housing should become obligatory for local councils.

She added, in an interview with Czech Television, that a second attempt to introduce such legislation would be a priority for her.

Social housing was a priority for the outgoing Social Democrat led government but disagreements between coalition parties about how this should be framed in law meant that it did not get passed in parliament. One of the basic problems were also arguments about which target groups should benefit from such housing.

Christmas in the Czech Republic is likely to be warm with rain or a mix of rain and snow, according to the long term monthly prediction of the national weather office.

Daytime temperatures are likely to rise to above zero and as high as 5 degrees Celsius in the days running up to Christmas.

During the first two weeks of January the forecasters say even nighttime temperatures are likely to remain above zero.

The Czech Republic is beginning to lack quality sperm for donation, according to clinics sounded out by public broadcaster Czech Television.

Doctors said that the demand for sperm was rising from infertile couples. However, stricter conditions for sperm donors meant fewer and fewer could meet the requirements, they added.

One clinic in Brno said that only around 10 percent of potential sperm donors could meet the requirements for the total number and quality in an ejaculation.

In the past soldiers and more recently university students have numbered among the biggest donors. But these are more and more frequently affected by stress and other lifestyle problems that can cut sperm numbers and quality.

Several hundred people demonstrated in Prague against a meeting of anti-immigrant European parties on Saturday.

They protested outside the Prague hotel where the meeting was convened and were later scheduled to converge later in the centre of the city.

The meeting, featuring France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherland’s Geert Wilders, was held at the invitation of the leader of the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy Party,

Tomio Okamura. The Czech leader, whose party gained the third most seats in parliament in October’s elections, said he was a convinced European but did not want to see the continent constructed on an administrative framework out of Brussels.

Le Pen’s said the direction Europe was now heading in was against the tide of history. Wilders said he hoped the Czech Republic would continue to close its doors to what he described as mass immigration.

Police said around 300 people took part in a demonstration against the meeting on Friday.

A museum commemorating the Czech Oscar winning film ʻClosely Observed Trains’ as well as the local railway has opened at the town of Loděnice near Beroun.

The film based on the book by Bohumil Hrabal was largely shot at the station by director Jiří Menzel. The museum at the station, which includes has been opened to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the rail route linking Prague, Rudná, and Beroun.

Snow showers with sunny spells are expected Sunday. Top temperatures will range between zero and three degrees Celsius.