News

The Rolling Stones are giving a concert in Brno on Sunday night, a part of their world-wide A Bigger Bang Tour. The concert was supposed to take place last year, but had to be postponed due to Mr Richards' accident. About 30,000 people are expected to attend including the Brno Mayor Roman Onderka who wants to present the rock'n'roll legends with gift of four hand-made walking sticks. Traffic on the Brno-Prague motorway is expected to be quite dense on Sunday night also due to the fact that the Brno racing circuit is hosting a Superbike championships event.

Two people died in an accident involving two cars and a van on the D8 motorway near Melnik, northern Bohemia. Thirty-seven- year-old women died at the site of the accident while he co-driver passed away in an ambulance. Two other people suffered serious injuries and were taken to the hospital.

The United States will pay for the disposal of excess missile systems, the daily Pravo reports. The Czech Foreign Ministry was approached by the American embassy in Prague in February and was offered financial assistance of USD 600,000 (over CZK 12,000,000) with the disposal of excess Soviet-produced missiles. The Czech army is planning to destroy over 1300 of these missiles together with more than 600 launching pads until the end of this year and only then will the Foreign Ministry receive the money. The U.S. government fears that the missiles, if not destroyed, could be sold to third parties and eventually used by terrorists.

The chairman of the Czech Senate Premysl Sobotka wants to see President Vaclav Klaus to discuss the date of the coming presidential election. President Klaus was elected on 27th February 2003 and some constitutional experts say his term expires on the same day in 2008. The Czech president is elected for a five years' term and can only be elected two times in a row. The date of the presidential elections is declared by the Czech Parliament. Vaclav Klaus has already said he would run for the position again and he can rely on the support by the Civic Democrats, the leading party in the government. Other parties have also begun searching for a suitable opponent for Mr. Klaus and Jiri Dienstbier, former Czech foreign minister, has already said he was prepared to face Vaclav Klaus in the elections next year.