News

General Frantisek Perina - a Czech pilot in the Second World War who died two weeks ago at the age of 95 - was given a military funeral on Monday - his remains will be laid to rest alongside his wife in his home town of Mokruvky in the Breclav region. Mr Perina's wife died just weeks before the general himself. Frantisek Perina was one of the last remaining Czech war heroes, who earned the title of "ace" in just two days over France in 1940. He shot down at least 12 enemy planes during the war. On Monday Czech President Vaclav Klaus commented Mr Perina's enormous contribution by saying that it was with amazement that he considered how much Mr Perina had achieved in a "single" life. Following his escape from Communist Czechoslovakia after the war, Mr Perina lived for many years in the US. He returned to his homeland in the 1990s.

Miroslav Macek, who physically attacked Health Minister David Rath at a meeting of Czech dentists on Saturday has been asked to leave the Civic Democratic Party. Mr. Macek, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s and long-time adviser to President Vaclav Klaus, was chairing the meeting of dentists when he walked over to the minister and without warning hit him on the back of the head. He said later he had been settling "a personal account".

The attack was severely condemned by Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek who said at an impromptu press conference that he viewed the attack as a political affair and called on President Klaus to reprimand his advisor. Mr. Paroubek said the Civic Democrats were creating an atmosphere conductive to violence against left wing parties. The President's Office has not commented on the incident. The Civic Democratic Party has distanced itself from Macek's action and asked him to leave party ranks. Mr. Macek told the CTK news agency he had no intention of doing so.

A gale force wind swept across the Czech Republic in the night and early morning hours uprooting trees and damaging roofs and cars in many parts of the country. Firemen in the western part of the country responded to close to 200 emergency calls overnight and several villages in the north and eastern part of the country suffered power blackouts. No injuries are reported.

The police have detained a man who is alleged to have sent anonymous letters to several Czech firms threatening to poison their food products. One of the letters was sent to the Opavia biscuit company warning that their products would be contaminated with a toxic substance that is extremely hard to detect. The suspect is a 28 year old from the town of Opocno and he appears to have been motivated by the desire for revenge. He has been charged with scaremongering and may be sentenced to three years in prison.