News of Radio Prague

Hyundai not to build car plant in Czech Republic

The South Korean car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor, informed the Czech government's investment agency CzechInvest on Tuesday that it would not build its new car plant in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic was competing for the foreign investment with Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. According to a CTK news agency report, Slovakia and Poland have both made it to the final selection. Hyundai plans to invest 1.5 billion US dollars into its new car plant, at which 300,000 cars are to be manufactured yearly, employing between 3500 and 4000 people.

Police break up drug dealing gang

Police say they have broken up a gang responsible for the manufacture of the Czech-produced amphetamine "pervitin". During Operation Fantom, two secret laboratories were uncovered in eastern Bohemia and 13 people arrested. They are believed to have been manufacturing and selling pervitin in the region since the beginning of 2002. The police have also seized ecstasy tablets and confiscated cannabis.

Technical problem leads to shutdown at Temelin

A problem in a rod near the reactor of the second bloc of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant in South Bohemia forced it to be shut down on Tuesday. This is the fifty-fifth outage since testing at the plant began in the fall of 2000. While plant officials said the technical problem was most likely a false signal, it has sparked fresh concern over the plant's safety standards - Temelin's design combines Russian technology with a US safety system.

Court rejects Opocensky appeal

Pavel Opocensky is to remain in jail after a Prague court rejected his appeal on Tuesday. The well-known Czech sculptor was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually abusing underage girls. Mr Opocensky attempted to appeal against the verdict, claiming mental illness. This, however, was refuted by both a psychiatrist and psychologist who said he was neither mentally ill nor a paedophile but rather had a weakness for young girls that he could live with without breaking the law.

Weather

Wednesday is expected to have overcast skies with early morning drizzle and temperatures reaching a maximum of ten degrees Celsius.