------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2008 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
By: Ian Willoughby
* The coalition government has, as expected, survived a vote of
no-confidence tabled by the opposition Social Democrats.
* Prague Airport is to get both train and metro links in the next
decade.
* More than 1,000 police officers are set to monitor 35 events taking
place in Prague on May Day.
========================================================================
Coalition survives vote of no confidence
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The coalition government has, as expected, survived a vote of
no-confidence tabled by the opposition Social Democrats. That party,
former member Evzen Snitily and the Communists voted for the motion,
though their combined 98 votes were not enough to topple the
three-party government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. It was the
third Social Democrat-tabled no confidence vote survived by the Civic
Democrat-led coalition.
========================================================================
Prague Airport to get train and underground connections to city
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prague's Ruznyne airport is to get train and underground rail links in
the coming decade, according to a plan signed by senior city and
national officials. A train connection from Masaryk station in the
centre of Prague to the airport and the town of Kladno should be
completed by 2013. However, it is not yet clear how the train link,
named AirCon, will be financed. Meanwhile, the A or green line of the
Prague metro system will be extended to reach Prague Airport by 2016.
========================================================================
Police to monitor three dozen May Day events in Prague
------------------------------------------------------------------------
More than 1,000 police officers are set to monitor 35 events planned
for Prague on Thursday, a state holiday in the Czech Republic. There
will be strong police presences at a number of demonstrations organised
by neo-Nazis, nationalists, anarchists and the Communist Party. The
reason there are so many events announced for May Day this year is that
Prague's Jewish Community has acquired permission for gatherings in two
dozen places, in order to prevent the far right from "booking" those
spots.
========================================================================
State owns St Vitus's Cathedral, reaffirms court
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prague City Court has upheld a ruling under which St Vitus's Cathedral
was adjudged to be the property of the Czech state. In September a
Prague District Court said the Prague Castle cathedral and adjacent
property belonged to the state. That decision overturned previous
rulings under which the Roman Catholic church was declared the owner of
the most visited cathedral in the Czech Republic. A spokesperson said
the church was planning to appeal against the latest verdict.
========================================================================
Kaplicky reduces size of Blob project to meet zoning laws
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Architect Jan Kaplicky has changed the design of a planned new building
for Prague's National Library to bring the project in line with the
city's zoning laws. The planned building, nicknamed the Blob, has been
designed for Prague's Letna Plain. However, it has run into a number of
obstacles, including failure to meet zoning laws. Mr Kaplicky's Future
Systems architecture studio has made reductions to the size of the
building in an effort to increase its chances of being built. The Blob
is the most controversial building project in Prague in recent years,
with its opponents saying it would be out of place on the city's
skyline.
========================================================================
Archaeologists discover unique late Stone Age wooden buildings in west
Bohemia
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Czech archaeologists have made what they have described as the
discovery of the century. Archaeologists from the University of West
Bohemian in Plzen uncovered unique wooden constructions from the late
Iron Age in a raised area in the Karlovy Vary region. They had been
preserved by the wet conditions at the site of a former fish pond and
have no equal either in value or number in the Czech Republic, one of
the team involved in the discovery said.
========================================================================
Vietnamese group arrested over marijuana
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police have charged a group of Vietnamese citizens with the cultivation
and sale of marijuana. Police uncovered 50 kilos of the drug and over
3,000 marijuana plants during a series of raids in Usti nad Labem. Nine
arrests were made in Usti, while three more Vietnamese were later
detained in Prague. Police said the group were exporting the marijuana
to the Netherlands and Germany.
========================================================================
First NHL games in Prague sell out
------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the tickets for two NHL ice hockey games in Prague in October have
been sold. Around 10,000 tickets for the games between New York Rangers
and Tampa Bay at the city's O2 Arena sold out in just over a day. The
two matches will open the 2008-2009 hockey season and will be the first
ever NHL matches held in the Czech Republic.
========================================================================
Weather
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It should be quite bright over the next few days, with some rain in
places. Temperatures will reach up to 18 degrees Celsius.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Affairs
Svejk author's grandson celebrates anniversary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jaroslav Hasek, the author of the world renowned book, The Good Soldier
Svejk was born 125 years ago today. Celebrations across the country,
and in particular in the town where Hasek is buried, have often taken
an unusual form:
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/103605
Current Affairs
Czechs mark Holocaust Remembrance Day
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day victims - a day of
commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished
during the Second World War - was marked in many parts of the Czech
Republic - in synagogues, at public gatherings and in private, by
families whose lives were directly affected by the Holocaust. Anyone
passing through Prague's Namesti Miru on Wednesday could stop to take
part in a public reading of the names of Holocaust victims. The event
was organised by the Terezin Initiative Institute, the Czech Union of
Jewish Youth and the Foundation for Holocaust Victims. I caught up with
one of the organizers, Michal Frankl, and asked him to say a few words
about this event:
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/103604
Current Affairs
Government survives no-confidence vote
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's centre-right government survived a
no-confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday. The motion from the
opposition Social Democrats won only 98 votes out of the overall 199
deputies present in the 200-member lower house. The three party
coalition, which has been dogged by corruption scandals and weakened by
internal strife once again showed that at times of crises it stands
united.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/103603
Spotlight
SAPA: Prague's 'little Vietnam'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAPA is about as close as you are going to get to feeling like you are
in Hanoi, or Ho Chi Minh City, while you are still, in fact, in Prague.
At certain moments, and from certain angles, you can almost forget the
prefab housing which surrounds the Vietnamese market, and believe that
you are on a completely different continent. SAPA is the heart of the
Czech Republic's rapidly-expanding Vietnamese community, and not for
nothing has it been dubbed 'little Vietnam'. But unlike the Chinatowns
that form an integral part of many a city, SAPA is miles away from
Prague's city centre. I ventured out to SAPA, where I was met by my
guide for the day:
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/103587
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail is sent to you automatically according to the settings you
chose at http://www.radio.cz/en/subscribe. To change the settings, click
here. (C) 2008, Radio Prague - the international service of Czech Radio,
all rights reserved. http://www.radio.cz, E-mail: cr@radio.cz
Pakistani Parties Argue Over Judiciary
