News of Radio Prague
Havel's health stable, to be released from hospital next week
President Vaclav Havel's health condition has stabilised and he is expected to be released from hospital in the course of next week. Mr Havel was forced to cut short a visit to France on Wednesday after complaining of breathing difficulties and has been in Prague's military hospital ever since. According to his private doctor, Ilja Kotik, the president is no longer suffering from a temperature, and is feeling well. A team of doctors will meet on Monday to decide on what day he can be released from hospital. Mr Havel, who is 65, has suffered from chronic bronchitis since an operation in 1996 to remove a malignant tumour from his right lung.
UDV: Former regime backed terrorism
The Czech Office for the Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism (UDV) has disclosed material that suggests that the former Czechoslovak communist regime supported international terrorism. In a campaign code-named 'Manuel', the Cuban and Czechoslovak intelligence services were believed to have backed leftist guerrilla movements in Latin America. According to the historian Prokop Tomek, people from various Latin American countries who were trained in Cuba to become guerrilla warriors in the 1960s, as well as communist functionaries set to prepare a revolution in their countries, were flown to Prague from Havana to be given false identities and passports and then sent back to their countries via Western Europe. Mr Tomek gives details about the campaign in the latest issue of the UDV's 'Securitas Imperii' periodical.
Union wants to run in 15 of 27 Senate constituencies
The Freedom Union wants to field candidates in 15 of the 27 constituencies to be contested in the Senate elections this autumn, thus leaving 12 constituencies to the Christian Democrats. Although the two parties make up the centre-right Coalition grouping, which has just formed a new government with the Social Democrats, they agreed earlier this week to go into the Senate elections separately. The Christian Democrats currently have 19 representatives in the 81-seat Senate, with six mandates ending in the autumn. The Freedom Union has eight mandates with none of its senators' terms ending this year.
Police charge one of three arrested youths with murder of German man
After Friday's arrest of three men - one German and two Russians - accused of murdering an eighteen-year-old German tourist, police in Prague have charged one of the suspects with murder. The victim's body was found in fields near the South Bohemian village of Bavorov on Thursday. He went missing shortly after arriving in the Czech Republic in mid-June, and was discovered with bullet wounds to the chest and head. The police are still investigating the case with the help of their German colleagues and are expected to release further information at a press conference on Monday.
Tennis-Czech Republic lead Canada 2-0 in Fed Cup tie
The Czech Republic led Canada 2-0 after Saturday's matches in their Fed Cup world group playoff tie for the 2003 World Group. Czech player Barbora Strycova beat Canadian Maureen Drake 6-1 6-0 and Klara Koukalova beat Marie-Eve Pelletier 4-6 6-3 6-4.
Weather
And finally a quick look at the weather forecast. Sunday is expected to start off sunny, with skies gradually becoming cloudy in the western parts of the country. Scattered showers and possible thunderstorms are expected in the north-west. Temperatures have been forecast between 24 and 29 degrees Celsius.
