News

A three-year-old boy miraculously escaped with light injuries after falling off a moving express train on Saturday. The incident happened near Lysá nad Labem and the child was flown to Prague’s Motol Hospital by helicopter. Rescue workers who found him said he had a head wound that required stitches and some bumps and bruises but appeared otherwise uninjured. He was conscious, communicating and his blood pressure was normal. The police are looking into why the child had been allowed to wonder up and down the train unattended. The train was an old model where the doors do not automatically safe-lock once the train is in motion.

Russia sharply reduced deliveries of oil to the Czech Republic, the news website euro.cz reported on Friday. Deliveries of oil have been decreasing throughout the week and on Thursday, Russia announced that the oil supplies planned for July would decrease significantly from 500,000 to less than 300,000 tons of crude. The Czech Foreign Ministry said they were looking into the situation to find out what was happening; it is likely that technical problems along the Druzhba pipeline are to blame.

The energy giant ČEZ applied on Friday for an assessment of the environmental impact the Temelín nuclear power plant may have after its completion. The analysis, known as EIA, is necessary for reaching a decision whether or not the South Bohemian power plant can be completed. The coalition Green Party said they would leave the government if the decision to complete the plant is made.

The construction of the Temelín nuclear power plant began in 1987; after the fall of communism, only two of the four originally planned blocks were finished and put into use in 2006.

President Václav Klaus approved an amendment to the election law on Friday that will redistrict 27 out of 81 electoral constituencies for the Czech Senate. The amendment, prepared by the government and passed by Parliament earlier this week, will change the district’s boundaries mainly in central Bohemia to match the changing demographics of the area when an increasing number of people are moving outside the Czech capital. The Interior Ministry rejected accusations of gerrymandering by the opposition Social Democrats, pointing out that every government has had to change the districts to make sure the respective number of voters complies with the law. The amended law will also affect nine electoral districts in which Senate elections will be held in the autumn.