News of Radio Prague

Spidla says EU labour concerns are unjustified

The leader of the ruling Social Democrats, Vladimir Spidla, told the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, on Tuesday that Germany's concerns over a massive influx of labour from the Czech Republic after EU expansion were unjustified. Speaking during a meeting of European Social Democrats in Berlin, Mr Spidla said there has been no evidence of any such intentions among Czechs and claimed that, on the contrary, research shows that Czechs are unlikely to leave the country in search of work.

Havel rejects EU labour concerns

Czech President Vaclav Havel has also rejected Austrian and German fears that EU enlargement will lead to their markets being flooded with cheap labour from post-Communist countries. Mr Havel's statement came during a meeting with the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt in Prague on Monday. The president said he found it hard to imagine that thousands of Czechs would try to seek work in current EU member states and said that a proposed transition period preventing the free movement of labour from candidate countries would not be fair.

Green Party wants international conference on Temelin

Upper Austria's Green Party has called on the Austrian government to organise an international conference on the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear power plant. The party says it wants to use political debate to discuss and find ways to have the plant shut down. This would include offering financial help to the Czech Republic, should it allow the plant to be shut down.

Czechs beat Canada 4:2 in ice hockey

The Czech Republic has defeated Canada 4:2 to move on to the quarter finals of the ice hockey world championships. This win leaves the Czechs at the top of their group in the second round of the championships, and they go on to face Slovakia in the quarter finals.

72 refugees found in Prague flat

72 refugees from India were discovered by police on Wednesday, hiding in a small flat in Prague. One officer said that some members of the group had confessed they were waiting for a Czech intermediary to take them across the border into Germany illegally. He added that the refugees had split into smaller groups in India and entered the Czech Republic by truck. The group is said to have been hiding in the flat for several days.

Eighth letter bomb discovered

Police in Prague have discovered the eighth letter bomb in a row to be sent to managers of the bankrupt firm H-System. The company was set up as a co-operative several years ago with the intention of building homes for members of the co-operative, but subsequently went bankrupt. Several public demonstrations have since been held by investors angry over the loss of their savings. Seven letter bombs were discovered by the police last week addressed to managers at H-System, one of which exploded. The device found on Monday was diffused by an officer from the bomb squad.

Weather

And finally, a quick look at the weather forecast. Night-time lows on Wednesday are expected to drop to five degrees Celsius. Thursday should see partially cloudy skies with daytime temperatures ranging between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius.