News

The Czech health authorities are trying to trace four Czechs who took a flight from Prague to Montreal on CSA flight 0104 on May 24th. The four are in a high risk group of passengers who sat close to a US citizen infected with "super TB", a strain of tuberculosis which is extremely hard to treat. The man was placed in isolation on arrival in Montreal. There were 187 passengers on the plane, but only those sitting in the same row with the ill man, one in front and one behind are considered to be most at risk.

Austrian opponents of the Temelin nuclear power plant in south Bohemia have threatened to renew blockades of Czech-Austrian border crossings if their government does not get tough with Prague. The anti-nuclear activists want the Austrian government to take the Czech Republic to court over the alleged violation of the so-called Melk agreement on nuclear safety. The Czech Republic officially protested against the continuing blockades a few weeks ago, and Austria promised to secure free movement of people and goods across the border. Vienna recently commissioned a legal study to ascertain what its chances would be if it sued the Czech Republic at an international court over the Temelin nuclear power plant. The verdict was that Austria would have practically no chance of winning such a case.

More than 1,000 villagers voted on Saturday against a planned US radar base which could be built near their homes. Residents from the villages of Hvozdany, Tyne and Zajecov overwhelmingly rejected the project. In Hvozdany, 381 of the village's 409 voters said they opposed the move. In another two referenda also held on Saturday, an overwhelming majority of voters from Zajecov and Tyne voiced their opposition. The results of the referenda are however not binding for the Czech government, which will take a final decision after the issue is put to vote in parliament, probably at the start of next year. The votes were held 48 hours before US President George W. Bush arrives in Prague on a two-day visit, which will largely be dominated by the issue.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is due to meet on Tuesday MPs Milos Melcak and Michal Pohanka who left the opposition Social Democratic Party last autumn and enabled Mr Topolanek's right-of-centre coalition cabinet to win a vote of confidence in the lower house. The two MPs may play a crucial role in the upcoming vote on the government-proposed package of public finance reforms. The opposition has said it will not support the legislation and the governing coalition has no guaranteed majority in the chamber. Prime Minister Topolanek says he does not yet know the two legislators' view on the reform package.

The leadership of the Social Democrats recommended to the party's MPs on Saturday to file a constitutional complaint against the reform package and not to approve it in a vote scheduled to take place in July. Social Democrat chairman Jiri Paroubek said at a news conference on Saturday that with their reform plan the ruling coalition was creating a country only for the rich. The first stage of the reforms, approved by the cabinet last week, includes changes to the tax and social welfare systems and introduces fees for certain healthcare services.