Press Review

There's just no escaping that man Vaclav Klaus - the head of the Civic Democrats dominates the Czech press once again on Friday. Mlada fronta Dnes reports that all the speculation is over - Mr Klaus will not be running for president next year. Given his party's poor showing in the elections last weekend, it's hard to imagine that being news to anybody at all.

Several of Friday's dailies ask which senior Civic Democrats are most likely to replace Mr Klaus. Lidove noviny says that the clear favourite is Evzen Tosenovsky, a name which will be unfamiliar to many. Mr Tosenovsky is the governor of the Moravia-Silesia region.

Asked whether he was actually interested in taking the reins of the party he was evasive; luckily I have the holidays to think about it, said Tosenovksy. He has even longer than that - the Civic Democrats have put off voting on the party chairmanship until December.

Another story getting a lot of coverage in recent days has been the fight for control of the Nova television channel. Mlada fronta Dnes carries a wonderful photo of the two major players in the legal battle, Vladimir Zelezny and Ales Rozehnal; the former friends and business partners are shown studiously avoiding each other in a narrow corridor before a broadcasting authority meeting both had to attend.

An agency in Ceske Budejovice is offering people a chance to get some easy money - they are helping Czechs with German ancestors to apply for duel Czech-German citizenship, and thus qualify for German child benefit. There is a slight catch - the Czech Republic will have to join the European Union before the handouts can be received.

Two years ago the colourful Czech journalist Jiri X. Dolezal lived for a whole month with a camera in his flat broadcasting images of him live on the Internet 24 hours a day. Now, he tells Lidove noviny, he has mixed feelings about the whole experience. The project was organised by a magazine Mr Dolezal worked for, and he says that even when it ended he did not feel comfortable in his flat, and eventually moved out.

In days gone by Prague's Wenceslas Square was the venue for a busy horse market. Now, reports Mlada fronta Dnes, it is becoming the city's book market. There are already several book shops on the street; now another large booksellers is due to open in the newly-constructed Luxor Palace, the modern mirror of Koruna Palace at the very bottom of the most famous street in the city.

How many dumplings could you eat at one sitting? Pravo carries a photo of Rostislav Simmer, who last year set a record of 161 plum dumplings. The rotund Mr Simmer says this year he wants to outdo his own record dumplings tally, adding that when you stuff that many down your gullet in one go you suffer afterwards. You couldn't do it more than once a year, he tells Pravo.