News of Radio Prague

Threat of terrorist attack in the Olomouc region grows more serious

The governor of the Moravian region of Olomouc, Jan Brezina, has warned local people against a serious threat of terrorist attacks that could take place on Monday morning. He said the threat came from an anonymous blackmailer who recently planted a bomb under a railway bridge in Olomouc and demanded 10 million Czech crowns from the government, otherwise, he threatened to plant explosive devices in different places across the region to go off on Monday, March 24th. Although the police left the money in several places indicated by the blackmailer on Thursday, he failed to collect it. Mr. Brezina said the danger was serious and urged local people to avoid busy public places, such as railway stations and supermarkets.

EP satisfied with new Czech president's stance on Sudeten Germans

European commissioner for enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, has expressed satisfaction with the position of the new Czech president Vaclav Klaus on the Sudeten German issue. He said Klaus's recent short statement was enough to bring to an end a lengthy dispute over the post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia under the so-called Benes decrees. On Friday, the 64th anniversary of nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Mr. Klaus called for reconciliation and said both nazi terror and post-war expulsion of Sudeten Germans were unacceptable from today's point of view. Mr. Verheugen said without president Klaus's symbolic gesture to condemn the expulsions, there had been a danger that the European Parliament would adopt a partly negative resolution concerning the Czech Republic's EU accession.

Czech soldiers in Persian Gulf are all right

All 458 troops in a joint Czech and Slovak anti-chemical unit stationed in Kuwait are all right, their commander Dusan Lupuljev told Czech press on Sunday. The unit came under Iraqi fire in the past days, with several rocket attacks on their military base neutralised by the Patriot anti-missile system. The Czech-Slovak unit has a mandate to provide humanitarian aid in Kuwait and neighbouring countries if Iraq uses weapons of mass destruction. However, it will not be engaged in the invasion of Iraq.

Governing coalition member demands parliamentary media council to be sacked

A junior member in the ruling coalition, the Freedom Union, has joined voices calling for the parliamentary council for TV and radio broadcasting to be replaced. The party claims the council is responsible for the problems with private television station TV Nova. An international court of arbitration ruled a week ago that the Czech Republic must pay Bermuda-based TV company CME more than 350 million US dollars in damages for failing to protect its investment into TV Nova in the late 1990s.

Weather forecast

We are expecting a bright and sunny day, the highest daytime temperatures should range from 13 to 17 degrees Celsius.