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A number of pictures from the former Eastern Bloc will be among the dozen in contention for the Crystal Globe for Best Film at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival next month, organisers said on Tuesday. They include Corn Island by Georgian director George Ovashvili, Welkome Home [sic] by Russia’s Angelina Nikonova and Free Fall by Hungarian helmer Gyorgy Palfi. There will be two Czech films in the main competition: Nowhere in Moravia, the directorial debut of actor Miroslav Krobot, and Fair Play by Andrea Sedláčková. The festival runs from July 4 to 12.

A bomb placed under the car of a Russian speaking driver exploded in Prague’s Nusle district on Monday night. The explosion was triggered when the driver started the car, but it only damaged part of the vehicle and the driver escaped unhurt. Bomb experts were called to the scene and police are searching for a possible motif.

The Prague Department of Housing and Urban Development has given its approval to locate a statue in honour of the two thousand Czechs and Slovaks who fought in Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II in Klárov, a square beside Manes Bridge. The approval came despite vehement protests from the Czech National Heritage Institute which turned down the application on the grounds that the Winged Lion Memorial was “inappropriate and incompatible” with this part of the historical centre of Prague, which is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The statue, designed by Colin Spofforth, was paid for by the British community here in Prague. It is to be unveiled on June 17 at a ceremony attended among others by June by Winston Churchill’s grandson, British Member of Parliament Nicholas Soames.

In its annual recommendations to member states, the European Commission has advised the Czech Republic to simplify its tax system, improve tax collection, implement a civil service law by the end of the year and address discrimination on the labour market.The report says that the discrimination of women on the labour market is one of the worst in the EU, both in terms of the differences in salary for men and women doing the same job and the fact that the lack of nurseries and pre-school facilities allow only five percent of mothers to return to work as soon as they would like after taking maternity leave, while the EU average is 30 percent. The difference in salaries between men and women is reportedly one of the highest in the EU, with women consequently getting lower pensions as well.