News

President Iliescu on three-day visit to Czech Republic

Romanian President Ion Iliescu is on a three-day official visit to the Czech Republic. Shortly after his arrival on Tuesday, he gave a speech on integration and globalisation at Prague's Carolinum and officially opened the new Romanian Culture Institute. President Iliescu is also scheduled to meet his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus, visit the Czech Parliament, and give a lecture at Charles University. On Wednesday evening, he will be travelling to the Moravian capital Brno and southern Moravia to commemorate Romanian soldiers who fell in the Second World War in the town of Kromeriz.

Hospital directors sacked for poor management

The heads of four heavily indebted hospitals in Moravia and Silesia have been sacked by local government authorities. The accumulated losses of these hospitals reached 318 million crowns last year, up from 142 million in 2002. Their replacements will have to introduce effective cost-cutting measures which would enable the hospitals to survive and repay their debts.

Victims of Iraq gas explosion in serious condition

Two men who suffered serious burns in a gas explosion at an oil refinery in Iraq have been flown to the Czech Republic and are now in intensive care at Prague's Vinohrady hospital. Both are on respirators, in critical condition. Another Czech expert was killed in the explosion. The Foreign Ministry and the Czech Chemoprojekt company, which is helping to reconstruct one of southern Iraq's three refineries have stressed that the explosion was in no way linked to terrorism.

TV Nova: Neo-Nazi movement publishes "list of enemies" on internet site

The Neo-Nazi organisation National Resistance has published a list of its biggest enemies, the country's main commercial station TV Nova reported on Monday. Some fifty personalities, including members of the Roma community, the Communist Party, as well as anarchists, have been black listed on the organisation's web site. Some of the people on the list have said they feared for their safety as they know of cases where members of the National Resistance have brutally attacked people they did not like. According to TV Nova, the Czech police have been monitoring extreme-right internet sites for some time now.

Weather:

Wednesday is expected to be overcast with scattered rain showers and day temperatures between 6 and 10 degrees Celsius.