News

Kenyan runners on Saturday won in both the men and women's races in the Prague half-marathon. Stephen Kibiwott finished with a time of 1:01:15, just 8 seconds off the record, while Caroline Kwambai - the women's favourite - edged her nearest rival by 3 seconds. The best Czech finish of the day came in the men's half-marathon: Pavel Faschingbauer finished fifth, more than five minutes off the Kenyan leader.

In other parts of Bohemia, the situation near Melnik, just 30 kilometres from Prague remains critical, with the Elbe continuing to rise. Parts of the town are now flanked by water that has broken the banks.

But, in the Czech capital, Prague, the situation remains more optimistic, although the flood commission will meet on Saturday to decide further steps: namely whether or not to call the highest alert, based on increasing water levels. Under the so-called 3rd degree, a number of the city's metro stations would be closed off. Parts of the Prague metro were badly damaged in floods in 2002, taking roughly a year to repair.

The bird flu virus has been confirmed in a fifth dead swan that was found in the south Bohemian region of Ceske Budejovice. The news was released by Josef Duben, spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration. A sample will be sent for testing to the European Union's Reference Laboratory in Weybridge, Britain, to confirm whether or not the flu is the deadly H5N1 strain - dangerous for human beings. Tests on one dead swan - the first case in the Czech Republic, found in Hluboka nad Vltavou, south Bohemia - confirmed the presence of the pathogenic virus. Other samples from dead swans confirmed H5.

Jan Veleba - the president of that Czech Agrarian Chamber - has warned that farmers in the Visegrad Four, that is the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, are growing increasingly dependent on EU subsidies as sales revenues have decreased. Mr Veleba made the announcement after a Visegrad meeting on Saturday. He pointed out that farmers want to turn around the decline in production and push for a change in rules in the use of agricultural products in the energy industry. There, they would like to see an increase of revenues from bioethanol, biooil and biogas. According to Mr Veleba, the chamber is planning on holding a summit of non-government agrarian organisations from new EU countries in the fall. Visegrad Four representatives, meanwhile, are to meet again in July.