News

Hundreds of Social Democrats gathered at Central Bohemia's Rip Hill on Saturday for a meeting of party liners. In what has become tradition ahead of elections, they ceremoniously climbed up the hill where the first Czechs are believed to have settled. Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is on a two-day visit, led the crowd. At the event, Mr Schroeder praised the ruling coalition Social Democrats for the country's large economic growth and said Mr Paroubek was a valuable party member and has been helping to increase their chances of winning the elections in June.

Mr Schroeder and the Hungarian and British Prime Ministers Ferenc Gyurcsany and Tony Blair are all planning to come to Prague towards the end of the election campaign to support the Social Democrats' efforts in winning another term in government. Social Democrat party liners first met on Rip Hill before the elections in 2002 to announce their party manifesto and launch the election campaign. They gathered there again in 2004 before the elections to the European Parliament.

Experts are examining a functional explosive device that has been found under a highly frequented railway in the Prague-Liben district, TV Nova has reported. The vessel with an unidentified liquid, wires, and igniter with batteries, was found by chance by police officers who were pursuing a suspected thief. It has already been confirmed that the device was not assembled by an amateur, TV Nova reports.

Two police officers from a special unit designed to help tourists in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have been arrested for extorting money from a Czech national, the Reuters news agency has reported. Not satisfied with about 260 US dollars they got from the Czech as well as a US national for allegedly possessing drugs, they accompanied the two tourists to their hotel to get more money. A spokesman for the Rio state security secretariat said the tourists alerted hotel security guards who called the police and the two officers were arrested on the spot.

The state security spokesman says there is no investigation or case against the tourists. The officers were charged with exceeding their authority and an investigation is underway to determine if they planted drugs on the tourists.

The 43rd international television festival, Golden Prague, opens in the Czech capital's Congress Centre on Saturday. The festival will run until May 5 and focuses on music and dance on the television screen. Dozens of contributions from 24 countries are participating this year. Golden Prague is one of the oldest television festivals in the world.