News

A museum of the history of one of Prague's most important monuments, Charles Bridge, is to be opened in the Czech capital next June. The museum, to be located by the bridge, will show documents on the history of the stone Gothic bridge, its construction during the reign of Emperor Charles IV., as well as the Baroque statues later installed on the bridge. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by Emperor Charles on July 9, 1357. The bridge was named after Charles in the 19th century. Until then it was called simply Prazsky and later Kamenny most or Prague and Stone Bridge.

An annual report by the Czech school inspectorate suggests that the Czech Republic will face a lack of kindergartens in a few years time while the number of high schools will exceed demand in the future. That will be the case in areas where the authorities have failed to react to a changing birth rate. The office also says it is worried by the number of injuries at primary schools. The inspectorate also examined the readiness of primary schools for an education reform scheduled to kick off in two years time.

A long expected film version of Bohumil Hrabal's novel "I Served the King of England", directed by Jiri Menzel, will premiere on Monday night in Prague. Menzel, who won an Oscar for his dramatisation of the Hrabal novel 'Closely Observed Trains' in 1967, was selected to direct the film last year following a legal confusion about the rights to the project lasting for ten years.

Police shut down a rock concert attended by about 120 right-wing extremists in Ceske Budejovice on Saturday night. The lyrics of one song by a group called Imperium constituted incitement to hatred, said a police spokesperson. Seven arrests were made. The Tolerance watchdog group said it was the first time the police had intervened to break up a meeting of that type for three years.