News Sunday, JUNE 06th, 1999

Radio Prague E-News, 5 June 1999, Vladimir Tax

Hello and welcome to Radio Prague. I'm Vladimir Tax and here's the news. First the headlines.

These are the main points and now the news in more detail.

Battle for TV Nova raging on

The battle for control over TV Nova, the most profitable TV station in post communist Europe, has intensified. The dispute between CNTS which runs TV Nova and the company CET 21 which owns the licence, has been going on for almost two months. On Saturday, when TV Nova's new director Jan Vavra wanted to address the audience, the broadcast was interrupted by the technical staff which is controlled by the former director Vladimir Zelezny. The state Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting has warned that it will impose a penalty on the TV station if the disputes continue on the screen.

Prague hosts Global Street Party

Czech capital Prague has hosted another Global Street Party, an event organized by extremist environmental and left-wing organisations. Several thousand people gathered to protest against consumerism and economic globalisation which in their opinion, is the main cause of devastation of the environment, wars, economic crises, poverty and a general destruction of the Earth. A year ago, an event with the same name ended in rioting and looting in downtown Prague. This year, there were one thousand police prepared to take action against any criminal offence and ready to arrest anyone carrying anything resembling.

Civic Democratic Alliance wants Kavan to step down

The Civic Democratic Alliance has called on foreign minister Jan Kavan to step down because of the Czech-Greek peace initiative for Kosovo. In the party's opinion, the initiative was a diplomatic faux-pas which damaged the Czech Republic's reputation. That is why foreign minister Jan Kavan should take full responsibility and resign. The initiative was contradictory to the principles of the accepted peace solution, the party said, and could have in effect prevent it from being reached.

The Environment Day celebrations

The Environment Day has been celebrated throughout the country on Saturday. In Prague's Namesti Miru, environmental initiative Children of the Earth organized competitions for children, teaching them how to recycle household waste. People were also able to bring plastic bottles and aluminum waste for recycling. About 10 000 people also signed a petition calling for a halt to the production of the poisonous chemical dioxin. In the town of Ostrava, another environmental movement, Duha or Rainbow, has prepared an exhibition about waste and recycling. The exhibition should teach people what products to buy with respect to whether the packaging can be recycled.

Czech weather report

And finally, the weather forecast. We are expecting a partially cloudy day with scattered showers, afternoon highs should range from 22 to 26 degrees Celsius. And a brief outlook for Monday and Tuesday: it should be much the same as on Sunday, partially cloudy with occasional showers, with highest daytime temperatures between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius.

And that's the end of the news.