The World - News from Aug. 16, 1988

Former Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek has been given a passport and is likely to receive an exit visa to travel to the West, Czechoslovak government spokesman Miroslav Pavel said. The ousted leader of the “Prague Spring” reform movement plans to go to Italy next month, where he is due to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Bologna along with jailed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela. It would be Dubcek’s first trip abroad since 1970, when he served briefly as Czechoslovak ambassador to Turkey after his removal as Communist Party chief following the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August, 1968.