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05/07/2008
The wife of the former Czech president Václav Havel Dagmar Havlová will not star in the premiere of his new play “Leaving” (Odcházení) which is to premiere in Prague’s Archa Theatre on May 22. Mr. Havel originally wrote the leading female role for his wife Dagmar and insisted on her getting the part, but a spokeswoman for the theatre said the former first lady was severely overworked and was forced to cut back on her activities.
“Leaving” has been dogged by problems ever since it was published. It was originally to be staged by the National Theatre but negotiations failed after the theatre refused to cast Dagmar Havlová in the lead role. The project was also turned down by Divadlo Na Vinohradech due to a lack of money. The first foreign premiere of Leaving will take place in London’s Orange Theatre on September 19.
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05/07/2008
Festival of animated films Anifest gets underway on Wednesday in the south Bohemian town of Třeboň. The 7th Anifest will screen more than 600 films from 59 countries. Among the 499 films in competition will be feature-length and short films, advertisements, music videos as well as student films. The festival will continue until May 13.
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05/07/2008
Slavia’s new football stadium in Prague’s district of Vršovice opens on Wednesday with an exhibition match between Slavia Praha and Oxford University AFC. The construction of the stadium cost 1 billion crowns (approximately 60 million US dollars); it has 21,000 seats and also includes a hotel and a bank.
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05/06/2008
The lower house of Parliament has postponed until June a debate on a controversial bill on church restitutions. The bill came under fire from opposition Social Democrats who said they were ready to file a constitutional complaint against it if it was approved in its present form. Under the bill, the state would return some of the church property confiscated by the communist regime and compensate religious orders for the rest. The compensation money would be paid out over a period of 60 years and would amount to 270 billion crowns. The opposition, and even some coalition deputies say this sum is outrageous and are demanding to know how government and church representatives had arrived at that figure.
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05/06/2008
The Supreme Court of Ireland on Tuesday upheld a 2007 verdict saying Czech Tomáš Půta and Slovak Maroš Šulej, alleged members of the infamous Berdych crime ring, may be extradited to the Czech Republic. Půta and Šulej were detained in Ireland on an Interpol arrest warrant in August 2006. They have been in Irish custody since then. Last year, a lower-level Irish court decided there were no obstacles to their extradition to the Czech Republic, but both men appealed the verdict. Půta and Šulej, a former member of a Slovak riot police unit, have been prosecuted in the largest organised crime case in the Czech Republic in which elite policemen were involved. The Berdych gang is suspected of murders, robberies and extortion of rich entrepreneurs.
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05/06/2008
Education Minister Ondřej Liška’s promise of a 5-percent pay-rise for teachers this year has failed to avert the threat of a strike in the education sector. Minister Liška announced the increase on Monday, saying that teachers would get an extra 0.5 billion crowns from the 2008 state budget and another four billion crowns next year. Teachers who have been threatening strike action for months are demanding a bigger increase on the basis of rising inflation. They claim that with inflation of 7.5 percent in the first quarter their real incomes have dropped significantly. The minister says he wants to engage in further negotiations with teachers’ trade unions.
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05/06/2008
The Unites States is considering hiring a private security agency to protect the planned US radar base on Czech soil, according to Tuesday’s edition of Pravo. The paper cites well informed sources who are engaged in Czech-American talks which should specify the conditions under which some 250 US soldiers would operate the radar base on Czech territory. Czech Deputy Defense Minister Martin Barták said previously that the Czechs would be responsible for the outer security of the base which would be protected by the country’s military police. The bilateral agreement also stipulates that in emergency situations – such as a fire – Czechs would have immediate access to the base. However such emergency crews would need to have security vetting.
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05/06/2008
British mobile phone giant Vodafone announced on Tuesday that it will distribute Apple's iPhone in 10 new countries including the Czech Republic. The phones, which are to appear on the market later this year, will be compatible with the Vodafone network. The company did not specify what iPhone model would be made available or at what price. Launched one year ago, officially the iPhone is only available in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland and Austria.
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05/06/2008
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek is on a one-day visit to Estonia where he is holding a series of meetings with senior government officials. The two sides are discussing trade relations, missile-defense issues and visa-free travel to the United States. Both countries recently signed memoranda in Washington opening the way for visa-free travel to the US for their citizens. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said he would welcome the siting of a US radar base in the Czech Republic saying it would improve security on the whole European continent.
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05/06/2008
A nation-wide search is on for a missing nine-year-old boy from the town of Havlíčkův Brod in South Moravia. Jakub Šimánek went missing on Sunday afternoon and the police have been unable to find any trace of him. Hundreds of officers have been combing the park where he was last seen playing as well as nearby woods and the banks of Sázava River. The police has appealed to the public for help.
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