Magazine
Two sisters give birth to three children within 9 minutes! The Prime Minister takes a newspaper to court for being nasty to his wife. And, a truck driver comes face to face with a brown bear on the D1 highway. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
Two sisters in the Czech Republic have set an unbelievable record - they not only gave birth at the same clinic and on the same day. They gave birth to three children within the space of just 9 minutes: a girl and twin boys. Doctors and nurses at the Brno Faculty Hospital say they'd never seen anything like it. The sisters themselves are not twins and hadn't really planned for this to happen. "It's great Lenka said - we'll go through all the teething problems and childhood ailments together - first day of school, birthday parties - it will really bolster the family spirit!"
An old man by the name of Mrazek from the town of Sedlcany has announced that he will donate a fair sized plot of land to anyone who wants to build a family home on it, settle down and have children there. For several weeks now he has been putting ads in various Czech papers to broadcast that message. The reason for this unexpected generosity is that Mr. Mrazek is getting old and is childless with no potential heirs anywhere in sight. "I'd like to see generations of Mrazeks live here in the future and so my only condition is that whomever I give the land to should either be called Mrazek or be ready to change their name" the old man said. Several Mrazeks and non-Mrazeks have already responded to the offer and Mr. Mrazek says he'll make up his mind in October which one of them he likes best.
The Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek is going to war with the Prague evening daily Vecernik Praha. Mr. Paroubek is suing the paper for what he says were highly insulting articles about his wife. One of the offending editions came out on the night when Czechs traditionally mark the burning of witches and there are bonfires and outdoor parties across the country, with young girls dressing up as witches. The paper carried a snapshot from a football stadium where the photographer had zoomed in on a banner reading "Paroubek it's OK to burn her tonight!" Although the Prime Minister's wife has made a brave attempt to ignore the negative publicity regarding her looks, her husband admitted she was upset by the treatment. He himself was clearly angered, telling journalists he could not recall when any politician's wife had been so ill-treated by the tabloid press, especially in view of the fact that she had no political ambitions and clearly wanted to stay out of the limelight. The PM said he was aware that taking the matter to court was not politically prudent, but, he told newsmen, some things in life were simply more important than winning political capital.
Chinese restaurants across the country have been thrown into a panic by a news report on commercial TV Nova. The station joined an inspection team which was heading for a Chinese restaurant in Kladno and the footage they got was enough to turn the nation collectively off its dinner when it was aired on the prime time evening news. Unspeakable dirt, cockroaches, mice -both dead and alive were all over the place. Food -including eggs and meat- was just lying around, instead of being stored in a refrigerator and the state of the frying oil in the dirty pans was enough to turn anyone's stomach. Having shown all this the TV reporter walked out front where the restaurant was packed and asked people how they were enjoying their meal. For the most part they had only praise for what they described as exotic cuisine. God only knows how they felt when they saw the report that evening. In any case it had instant impact.
Teams of inspectors got to work - making lists of Chinese restaurants in their locality - while Czechs who are fond of Chinese food panicked at the idea of what health risks they may have laid themselves open to. Those who were brave enough to go back there found that after years of non-stop service many places had suddenly closed down for a day or two - for technical reasons. Inspectors know what's going on. According to the chief inspector Jiri Pekny - they are engaging in a massive clean up operation. I have it from reliable sources that some of them have been cleaning day and night, putting everything right, Pekny says. Although some may thus save their skin - the food and hygiene office says its going to keep a very sharp eye on them in the future.
No doubt you favour e-mails and sms messages when you have something to tell your friends. However, there are people who still like to send an old fashioned, hand-written letter or postcard. And some are even more nostalgic for the old days -believing there is nothing like having your mail delivered by Pony Express. If you thought that those days were long over - then I have a surprise in store. The Pony Express is alive and well and right now pairs of horse riders are breaking speed records and kicking up the dust across the Czech Republic. The Pony Express is an annual event in this part of the world. The postal route stretches across several states and the Pony Express team involves more than 200 riders and horses from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and a number of other states. The post takes 8 days to arrive during which time horses and riders cover a distance of 2,400 kilometres. They ride in pairs at top speed and are replaced after a twenty km stretch by fresh riders and horses. The goal is of course to deliver the mail safely - and in as short a time as possible.
