News

Prague firemen on Saturday unveiled a plaque in the Czech capital commemorating the 343 New York firemen and rescuers who died in New York City nine years ago, responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The plaque, which bears an inscription in Czech and English, is found at Prague’s Kampa at Malá strana. On Saturday, the ninth anniversary of 9/11, Prague fire fighters also gathered at the US Embassy, where commanders presented US cultural attaché David Gainer with a commemorative letter. Mr Gainer also took part in the unveiling, along with the mayor of Prague 1, laying a wreath at the site.

ČTK has reported that a two-year-old toddler died in an ambulance en route to hospital in Svitavy on Sunday, after suffering fatal wounds in a tractor accident. The little boy had been sitting on the tractor driver’s lap but slipped and was run-over by the vehicle’s roller. A police breathalyser test confirmed that the driver had consumed alcohol. Police are investigating the case as one of criminal negligence causing death which carries a sentence from one to six years in prison.

Fire fighters have estimated that a blaze which broke out in an industrial zone in Otrokovice, near Zlin in southern Moravia on Friday caused damage in the tens of millions of crowns. The fire broke out at around eight pm, spreading across buildings that included a laminate factory, a warehouse storing inflammable liquids, a car repair service, and a scrap yard. It took 20 fire crews most of the night to localize the threat. No was hurt in the incident but nearby residents were advised to keep their windows closed due to smoke. A mobile detection lab monitoring the concentration and chemical make-up of the smoke, meanwhile, said it posed no additional safety threat. Specialists are investigating the cause of the fire.

A 90-year-old graphic designer, Petr Tučný, is suing Prague’s Public Transport Company on allegations the firm used, without his permission, a font he designed in the late 1960s. The names of metro stations in the capital are written in an uppercase sans serif lettering known as Metron which Mr Tučný says he designed in the years 1967-69. The transport firm, though, maintains the font was the work of late graphic designer Jiří Rathouský - dating back to the early 1970s. Mr Tučný has countered that the other designer merely modified his original work. Due to high legal fees, Mr Tučný is seeking damages for the use of the font at only one station, Kačerov, on the “C” line. He is asking for 500,000 crowns. If he succeeds in court the complaint could be broadened, his lawyer said.