Press Review

All of Friday's front pages cover the accident in Milan in which a single-seater plane crashed into a skyscraper, killing the pilot and three people in the building. Lidove noviny reports that Sudeten Germans - expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II under the Benes decrees - have, at a debate in Vienna entitled "From Benes to Saron", compared their experience in the past to what the Palestinians are currently going through.

Some participants in the discussion said that the Palestinians had one advantage over Sudeten Germans - their right to self-determination has been acknowledged many times. An Austrian lawyer called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a terrorist, and said he should be put behind bars along with his Czech counterpart, Milos Zeman, who had encouraged Sharon to treat Palestinians in the same way Czechoslovakia dealt with Sudeten Germans, the daily writes.

Mlada fronta Dnes carries a long interview with Slovak President Rudolf Schuster, who the paper labels a communist Catholic. Slovakia is facing elections in September, and Schuster warns against underestimating former authoritarian prime minister Vladimir Meciar - whoever underestimates him always loses, Schuster tells the daily.

In its Prague section Mlada fronta Dnes carries a photo of a police German Shepherd dog biting onto a man's padded arm as it is trained to attack, something some might find distasteful given that three children have been savaged by German Shepherds in the Czech Republic this year; one of the children was killed.

The number of dentists in the country is set to fall by half over the next ten years, as thousands of dentists retire and not enough new people are entering the profession, writes Lidove noviny. Does that mean we'll be told to go only once a year, instead of every six months?

The Social Democrats have used the famous "Zemak" bus - named after Prime Minister Milos Zeman - in election campaigning in the past; this time round Coalition are using a fleet of 28 cars bearing their logo to try and get their message across to voters. Mlada fronta Dnes carries a photo of the leaders of Coalition, Christian Democrat head Cyril Svoboda, and Hana Marvanova of the Freedom Union, sitting in one of the cars and smiling broadly.

Lidove noviny reports on what it calls an "unexpected fashion hit" - felt hats shaped like beer-bottle tops. The green hats are part of a popular advertising campaign for the Staropramen brewery; they are evidently much sought after and bootleg versions are now on sale - those mad enough to want to wear a hat shaped like a bottle top can only get the real thing from the brewery.

The director of the zoo in the north Bohemian city of Liberec has been fined for breaking the veterinary law, writes Lidove noviny. His (frankly bizarre) crime - taking the corpse of an African elephant from a disposal centre back to Liberec zoo, to be used for educational purposes and as decoration. The head of the local veterinary office said that anything which had been at a carcass disposal plant could not be used again. Very strange.