News of Radio Prague

Czech Republic commemorates fourteenth anniversary of Velvet Revolution

The Czech Republic has commemorated the fourteenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the peaceful movement that brought down the communist regime in 1989. Special ceremonies took place across the country on Monday to mark the anniversary. Top officials, including President Vaclav Klaus, laid flowers and lit candles on Narodni Street in Prague where the communist police brutally cracked down on a peaceful student demonstration on November 17th, 1989. The event triggered a series of demonstrations and strikes which eventually brought an end to four decades of communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

Klaus meets new Christian Democrat chairman

Czech President Vaclav Klaus met the newly-elected chairman of the coalition Christian Democratic Party Miroslav Kalousek on Sunday. The two politicians discussed the current reform of public finances. After the meeting, President Klaus said that he and Mr Kalousek shared a certain rationalist and pragmatic attitude to politics. Mr Klaus also said the meeting provided him with a "certain instruction" as to whether or not he should sign the government-proposed package of public finance reform bills. Observers say that Mr Klaus's relations with the previous Christian Democrat chairman, Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda, have been far from warm. They differ, for example, on the European integration issue and Czech participation in the Iraqi war.

Klaus to meet other party leaders

Following Sunday's talks with Christian Democrat chairman Miroslav Kalousek, President Vaclav Klaus said he was planning to meet the leaders of other parties represented in the Czech Parliament as well. On Monday evening, President Klaus met with the leadership of the opposition Civic Democrats at the presidential chateau in Lany, west of Prague. Mr Klaus was one of the founding fathers of the Civic Democratic Party but left it after he was elected Czech President earlier this year.

Czech tourist injured in High Tatras in stable condition

A Czech tourist who suffered serious injuries on Sunday after falling and sliding 200 metres in the High Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, has undergone surgery and his condition is now stable, doctors from the Poprad hospital have said. The thirty-tree-year old man was hiking on the Ostry Rohac mountain on Sunday when he slid down a slope, breaking his leg and suffering injuries to the head and shoulder. The Czech man has regained consciousness but it is still unclear how long he will remain in hospital care.

Weather

Tuesday is expected to be partly cloudy to overcast with rain in places. Daytime temperatures should range from 4 to 12 degrees Celsius.