News of Radio Prague
Chief of Prague City Police resigns after failing screening test
The chief of Prague City Police resigned on Tuesday after failing a security screening test designed to prevent former communist secret police agents from holding senior official posts. Radim Chyba, who had been in the office since 1997, underwent the test as part of the city's security preparations for the NATO summit in November this year. In recent months, screening tests have revealed a number of former Communist agents hold senior posts, two of them in the immediate surroundings of President Vaclav Havel.
Czech military hospital to be financed by bonds
The lower house has approved the issuing of bonds worth 600 million crowns or almost 17 million US dollars to finance the Czech military mission in Afghanistan. The bill has yet to be approved by the Senate and the president. A Czech military field hospital has begun work in the Afghan capital Kabul where the Czech Army medical personnel will provide care to members of international military units as well as local citizens.
Border crossing closed due to contamination
The Cinovec-Altenberg border crossing with Germany was opened again for traffic after 5 pm on Tuesday. The border crossing was closed for nine hours since Tuesday morning due to contamination by a highly flammable chemical substance leaking from a German truck on the German side of the border. This has been the third time in five days the Cinovec-Altenberg border crossing had to be closed due to leakage of a dangerous chemical from a tank. On May 2nd the border crossing was evacuated for 12 hours.
Private library of author Franz Kafka returns to his hometown
Nearly 1,000 original manuscripts, books and other works were presented to the Franz Kafka Society as a gift from the German carmaker Porsche on Tuesday. The company bought the collection last year from a Stuttgart antique collector, Herbert Blank, who spent years gathering manuscripts and first-edition books as well as volumes from Kafka's personal library. Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life and wrote his famous works. For much of the 20th century, Czechoslovakia's former communist regime tried to ban Kafka, who wrote about man's alienation and society's flaws, uniquely reflecting Prague's artistic and intellectual Czech-German-Jewish culture before World War II.
Weather
And finally a quick look at the weather forecast: we can expect a clear night with temperatures between 12 and 8 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday the summer weather should be back with isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon and temperatures reaching highs of 24 degrees Celsius.
