Last week 20/2006

Hero of the fight for freedom and legendary World War II pilot František Peřina (95) passed away. The Czech Philharmonic opened the Prague Spring International Music Festival. Thousands of people demonstrated in favor of legalizing marijuana on Letná in Prague. Vodafone reduced the cost of roaming. Sixty-one years passed since the end of World War II. “‘Peace in Europe’ is a nice phrase, but all these years after the war only aged pensioners take them to heart,” commentator Luboš Palata wrote in Lidové noviny in a commentary on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to bring the European constitution back into play. The Prague trade fair World of Books was visited by Danish prose writer Helle Helle. Václav Klaus vetoed the Labor Code.

Fugitive businessman Radovan Krejčíř sent message to the Czech Republic from the Seychelles Islands that he would be willing to return, cooperate with the investigation, and even accept a sentence if found guilty, but on one condition – that he would be allowed to put up any amount of bail and remain at liberty during the investigation; the justice ministry rejected the offer. Media reported that Cuba and China were elected to join the U.N. Human Rights Council by a large majority of the votes. “The tests are difficult and full of gross mistakes – for example, even I didn’t understand the listening part, and I’m a native Russian,” said Russian teacher Veronika Nikitina, adding to the complaints of her secondary school colleagues who discovered that the practice tests for state leaving exams, which were taken by 85 percent of all graduates, are full of grammar and semantic errors. Jennifer Larmore sang in Prague. The memorial to fallen Czechoslovak legionaries in Vladivostok was reopened after three years of reconstruction. The price of gold went up. The chief of the Prague 2 police force Jan Navrátil was dismissed because his subordinate beat a woman with children who was disapprovingly observing a May Day march of Prague neo-Nazis; the police officer who beat the woman will go before a court, and his colleagues who watched his actions without intervening could face criminal prosecution. According to bank press releases, the share of singles on the mortgage market rose. Fourteen new and unguarded trails for pedestrians cut through the Czech-Austrian border. “Like in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,” commented Lidové noviny. According to wire reports, the dispute in the Vatican continues over its position on author Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code, which some prelates believe lampoons the Christian messiah Jesus Christ and whose film version just celebrated its world premiere in Cannes. Due to an argument between the Czech and British partners, the Czech Republic’s largest windmill power plant with eighteen windmills in Krušné hory fell apart. The Alexandrov singers sang in Prague. Eva Holubová won the award for best performance by a female actor at the Tribeca Film Festival for her role in the film Holiday Makers. Intelligence director Karel Randák was promoted to general. “He came to me and said, ‘it’s good, Miloš, you give ten million for the papers from the police and 20 million for freedom; well, what are you looking at, that’s not expensive,’” real estate magnate Miloš Červenka told the newspaper Mladá fronta DNES after his release from custody while describing how Social Democratic lobbyist František Vybíral had promised him no trouble from the police and personal freedom before he was taken into custody; Červenka has long been under investigation for suspicion of fraud – he is suspected of acquiring land around Prague worth billions for a song thanks to help from people in high places at the agriculture ministry. Martina Navrátilová played on Štvanice Island. Politicians limited immunity to the duration of their mandates. After a three-year process, a Prague court granted two million korunas in compensation to British tourist Trevor Tuffin, who was seriously injured in 2003 when a poorly secured giant Christmas tree fell down on him as he was walking through Old Town Square. The Czech currency strengthened to 28.15 korunas to one euro. A school bus crashed in Vestín, injuring 16 children. The Slovak police arrested Czech reporter for the Slovak weekly Plus 7 Václav Nekvapil for trying to eavesdrop on a Bratislava government meeting through a mobile phone placed under the table. Antimonopoly Office director Martin Pecina won a place in the final of the “Green Pearl” contest for his comment to Hospodářské noviny last year: “It is true that we export electric energy, but we import way more oil and natural gas than we export electric energy, so it isn’t true that we export the environment – on the contrary, we import it.” The European Union postponed its decision on the accession of Romania and Bulgaria for a few months. Through comparative tests, the health ministry found that Homolka Hospital is the best of all hospitals when it comes to treatment.