News

The police have detained 24 illegal refugees, whom they found packed in the back of a lorry during a routine check on the D1 highway from Brno to Prague. Their detection caused a minor incident on the road when some of the refugees attacked the officers while the others ran for cover. Police re-enforcements finally rounded up the whole group. They are all Chinese nationals and have been placed in a detention centre, pending further questioning and possibly expulsion.

Czech politicians have expressed their condolences and solidarity with Britain, in reaction to the terrorist attacks on London on Thursday. In a letter to the Queen, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who is currently at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in west Bohemia, said the Czech Republic would join Britain to face those who, with cowardly practices, are trying to destroy the values that our civilization is based on. Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek as well as the speakers of both houses of the Czech Parliament have said the attacks on the European continent prove that the international fight against terrorism has been imperative and must continue.

A state-funded international centre for clinical research will most likely be opened in the Moravian capital of Brno, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Martin Jahn said on Thursday. The plan is part of the National Innovation Policy, under which results of research are to be put into practice by 2010. This goal is to be reached by putting one percent of the GDP into research and development, making it easier to acquire grants, and making technology and mathematics subjects more attractive at universities. The policy was approved by the government on Thursday. Mr Jahn's office expects to present a more detailed plan on the establishment of the clinical research centre in the next month.

It is a state holiday in the Czech Republic, in honour of the Czech religious reformer Jan Hus (John Huss), who died on July 6, 1415. Services dedicated to him have been held in Hussite, Czech Evangelical and other Protestant churches around the country, on this the 590th anniversary of his death.

Born in south Bohemia, he studied in Prague before being made parish priest at the city's Bethlehem chapel. He was strongly influenced by the English reformer John Wycliffe, whose writings he translated into Czech. When Wycliffe's teachings were banned by the Church, Hus protested from the pulpit; he was declared a heretic and excommunicated, before being burnt at the stake.

In 1999 the late Pope John Paul II expressed regret for Hus's killing, though he was not rehabilitated.

A service was held at Bethlehem chapel in honour of Jan Hus on Wednesday, attended by the prime minister, Jiri Paroubek. President Vaclav Klaus, meanwhile, was among the congregation at a service in Husinec, south Bohemia, where the reformer was born around 1370.

The large statue of Hus on Prague's Old Town Square is to be lit up at night from today on.