Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas announced last night that he will resign over a spy and bribery scandal involving his government.

Czech prosecutors have charged seven people in a multi-pronged scandal involving the prime minister’s aide, his estranged wife, the military, former politicians and kilograms of gold.

Authorities in parts of central Europe issued disaster warnings and scrambled to reinforce flood defences yesterday as rivers swelled by days of heavy rain threatened to burst their banks.

Thousands of Czechs have said a personal farewell to former president Vaclav Havel, who led the peaceful revolution that toppled the communist regime in 1989.