Liberec, Czech Republic  - Xu Wenlong of China and Morgan Smyth of the United States won cross-country qualifying races and Frenchwoman Coline Mattel had the longest ski-jump as the Nordic skiing world championships were set to get underway.

The women's 10km cross-country ski race and the Nordic combined mass start event kick off the championships on Thursday.

Czech Republic  - Coline Mattel soared 99 metres on Wednesday as the first training jump for the inaugural women's ski jumping world championship competition was held on Wednesday.

The 37 women faced difficult conditions in the form of heavy snowfall and only one instead of three planned rounds was held.

Mattel soared the huge jump from a high gate, while the top favourites started from lower gates.

Prague  - An Austrian pharmaceutical firm sent a flu vaccine, which it had accidentally contaminated with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, for testing in the Czech Republic, a report said Tuesday.

The Austrian firm Baxter said it contaminated the vaccine with the dangerous virus by accident, likely during packaging in Austria, the Mlada Fronta Dnes daily reported, citing Baxter's representative.

Baxter shipped the infected vaccine to the Czech biomedical firm Biotest for testing on ferrets in late January.

Prague  - Czech parliament's lower house is set to resume debating the European Union's stalled reform pact, the Lisbon Treaty, at 6 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday and possibly vote on the pact, local reports said, citing lawmakers.

The Czech Republic is the last member state yet to vote on the accord, which passed parliaments in 25 countries but was rejected by Irish voters in a June 2008 referendum.

If adopted, the treaty would overhaul EU institutions with the aim to streamline decision-making in the enlarged 27-member bloc.

Prague - At least 43 passengers were injured Monday, three of them seriously, when two trains had a head-on collision in the north-eastern Czech Republic, the CTK news agency reported, citing medical officials.

The railways said in a statement that one of the drivers was likely at fault as he ran a red light instead of waiting for a train arriving from the opposite direction.

The train was moving at 40 kilometres per hour when it crashed into the second train, which slammed on the brakes and managed to come to a halt.

Prague - The Czech Republic's centre-right government Monday approved a set of fiscal measures aimed at softening the economic slump's effects on the country's export-driven economy.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told a news conference that the package and earlier pro-export measures adopted in late 2008 would cost taxpayers 1.9 per cent of gross domestic product, or some 70 billion koruny (3 billion dollars).

The premier said that the plan counts on a prediction that the country's economy would contract by 1 per cent.