News of Radio Prague
Czechs to consider not putting Temelin in operation
Czech foreign minister Jan Kavan and Austrian environment minister Wilhelm Molterer held talks on the controversial Czech nuclear power station Temelin, located in South Bohemia near the border with Austria. After several hours of negotiations on Saturday, the Czech side agreed to include the option of not putting the plant into operation in the environmental impact assessment to be presented to Austria. The Czech government has also promised to improve public access to information on potential serious accidents.
Havel: Russia should have no fear of NATO
Czech President Havel presented his vision of the future role of NATO at an international conference in the Slovak capital Bratislava. The conference entitled "Europe's new democracies: leadership and responsibility" was attended by the prime ministers of ten former East European communist countries aspiring to become NATO members.
President Havel said that Russia must finally realize that it has nothing to fear from an expanded NATO. He said that NATO's expansion to include former communist countries which will move NATO closer to Russia's borders, will bring closer stability, security, democracy and an advanced political culture, which, in Mr Havel's opinion, is in Russia's essential interest.
Russia has fiercely opposed any expansion of the alliance, calling it a security threat. A decision on the second wave of NATO's expansion eastward is to be made at a NATO summit in 2002 which is to take place in Prague.
Czechs have chance to win third world title
Ice hockey - and the Czech Republic beat Sweden 3-2 in the semi-finals of the world ice hockey championships in Germany on Saturday. The Czechs, who are the reigning Olympic champions, are now just one win away from becoming the first country to claim three successive world champion titles since 1978.
Czech politicians to stop petty politicking
Top representatives of the mainstream Czech political parties have agreed to avoid political disputes which could endanger the country's accession to the European Union in the first wave of enlargement. Leaders of the political parties represented in the Parliament said that although they may have different opinions on certain issues, they want to make sure the Czech political scene looks unified in their effort to join the union.
Czech weather forecast
And finally, the weather forecast. We are expecting mostly clear skies on Sunday, with afternoon highs ranging from 18 to 22 degrees Celsius. Weather in the Czech republic at the beginning of next week should be partially cloudy with occasional showers, with the highest daytime temperatures between 21 and 25 degrees Celsius.
