Former NATO general Petr Pavel takes oath to become Czech president

Petr Pavel, a former Czech army chief and high-level NATO official, took the oath of office to start his five-year term as Czech President on Thursday.

Pavel beat populist former prime minister Andrej Babis in a January election on pledges to firmly anchor the central European country in the European Union and NATO, a turn from predecessor Milos Zeman who had tried to boost relations with Russia and China.