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A forestry worker was killed on Wednesday while working in a wood near Pejškov in south Bohemia. The man died when a tree fell on him. The incident happened just two days after a ban on entering forests due to the risk of falling trees had been lifted. People had been prohibited from entering woodlands following a massive windstorm in mid-January, which caused extensive damage. The man is the third person to die in Czech forests since they suffered major damage in last month's storm.

The Senate today approved the deployment the Czech field hospital to Afghanistan for 12 months as part of a NATO peace-keeping mission in the country. Although the deployment has yet to be discussed by the lower house, it has the support of both the centre-right coalition government and the main opposition Social Democrat party. Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said that some of the costs of deploying the hospital - estimated to be 150 million Czech crowns or just under 7 million US dollars -would be covered by NATO.

Trokavec, a small village south-west of Prague which lies close to the projected site for a future US radar base, has called a local referendum on the issue. The village mayor Jan Neoral said that all of the inhabitants were strongly against the US base and he felt it was right that the local community should make its voice heard. The referendum is to take place on March 3rd. Other small towns in the vicinity are allegedly considering a similar move. They complain about a general lack of information and local inhabitants are fearful of the implications of living in close proximity to a radar base.

A decision on whether to allow the United States to build a radar base in the Czech Republic should be made by Parliament in the spring of next year. The governing Civic Democrats have strongly opposed calls for a national referendum on the issue, on the grounds that this is not the norm elsewhere in the world.

The Russian ambassador to Prague Alexej Fedotov on Tuesday indicated that Russia's negative stand with respect to the planned US radar base could change. Following talks with the head of the opposition Social Democrats Jiri Paroubek, ambassador Fedotov said that Russia wanted certain questions answered and that serious negotiations could change its position. This is the first sign of flexibility from Moscow after Russian President Putin slammed the US anti-missile project as an attempt to "change the balance of forces in Europe" saying that Russia would take reciprocal measures. The leader of the Czech Social Democrats Jiri Paroubek also indicated that his party's negative stand to the base could change if it were to become part of a "collective security" agreement.