News

Spanish director Sam Conflictivos won the main award for best animated full-length film for adults with his puppet horror comedy Possessed at the Anifilm international festival in Třebon at the weekend. The Tale of Princess Kaguya by Japanese Isao Takahata, which was nominated for an Oscar this year, won as the best animated full-length film for children. Special mentions in these categories went to Signe Baumane, a Latvian animator living in New York, for her autobiographical study of depression, Rocks in my Pockets, and Irish director Tomm Moore, from the Cartoon Saloon studio, for Song of the Sea.

Croatian police at the weekend briefly detained Czech national Vít Jedlička who in April founded a mock state on a seven-square-kilometre stretch of no-man’s land disputed for years by Croatia and Serbia. Mr Jedlička, a member of a Czech extra-parliamentary right-wing party, founded a state he called Liberland on April 13th. Croatia tightened checks around the area near the Danube over recent days, deploying police patrols and boats in the locality and preventing individuals from entering the uninhabited area. Mr Jedlička was stopped from entering and questioned for half-an-hour, according to the Czech News Agency. The Czech said afterwards he had discussed the further “functioning” of the zone with a judge in Beli Manastir. The Czech Foreign Ministry has declined to comment.

The majority of employees at the Government Agency for Social Inclusion began a strike on Monday morning. They staff are demanding independence for the state body, which falls under the minister of human rights, Jiří Dienstbier, and have called for talks with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. The dispute arose after Mr. Dienstbier dismissed the head of the agency, which is aimed at helping integrate Romanies into mainstream society.

A number of Czech politicians have questioned President Miloš Zeman’s prediction that Western sanctions against Russia would be lifted by the end of the year. Mr. Zeman, who disagrees with the sanctions, made the comment in a radio interview in Moscow. Social Democrat MEP Miroslav Poche said he doubted the president’s prediction would come true as the Minsk Protocol pertaining to Ukraine was not being met in full, while ANO MEP Pavel Telička said Mr. Zeman appeared to be drawing on different information from that available in EU and NATO capitals. Miroslav Kalousek of TOP 09 criticised not only Mr. Zeman’s statement but also his decision to visit Moscow to attend WWII commemorations. However, Communist Party deputies group head Pavel Kováčik supported the visit and welcomed the president’s raising of economic issues at the Kremlin.