News

The head of the Czech Roman Catholic Church, Dominik Duka, has criticised priest Tomáš Halík’s plan to take part in events linked to the Prague Pride GLBT festival next month. Mr. Halík is due to host a discussion on the harassment of gays in the church and the screening of a documentary on a Polish homosexual priest. In a statement, Cardinal Duka said it would be inappropriate to hold those events as they were connected to a pride parade in which most participants were not Christians and were uninterested in improving relations with the church. Four years ago Mr. Halík described the parade as “fireworks of tastelessness and obscenity”.

The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, is planning a second visit to China within a year, Lidovky.cz reported on Tuesday. Mr. Zeman will attend events marking the end of World War II in the Pacific in Beijing at the beginning of September, the news website said. The celebrations will include a military parade but the president’s office has not specified which events he will take part in during the visit. The EU’s ambassador to China, Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, said it was unlikely senior EU officials would attend the commemorations, AFP reported.

Anti-corruption activists have criticised a planned bill aimed at combating money laundering that will create a register of real owners of companies. In a statement on Tuesday the Centre for Independent Investigation said the legislation, which has been prepared for the Ministry of Finance by the Ministry of Justice, will not produce the desired outcome as its contents will not be complete. They and three other NGOs also say access to the data will be limited, with journalists only being able to use it to prevent “crimes and the financing of terrorism”. The Ministry of Justice said the bill was not aimed at creating a public database of firms’ ownership and power structures but at reducing money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Nature lovers descended on the Botanical Garden in Liberec on Monday night to admire the famous Victoria Regia, also known as the queen of the water lilies in bloom. There are only three of its kind on the continent and the Liberec Botanical Garden acquired this specimen thanks to the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh. The Victoria Regia lily is a rare sight and blooms for just two consecutive nights: white the first night, pink the second. After the second night, the flower closes and disappears under the water surface where the seeds ripen. Each plant can produce a number of flowers, but only one at a time. This is the first time that visitors have been allowed into the Liberec Botanical Garden at night in the garden’s 120-year-history.