>>> Dog boarding kennels are as scarce in Prague as hen’s teeth, Pražský deník reported on Tuesday. 594,000 visitors have come to the Prague ZOO in the first half of the year, the second highest number in the last five years. “Several sharks have now appeared in the ČSSD that are trying to attack Paroubek,” political scientist Jan Kubáček told Mf Dnes on Tuesday, adding that Paroubek’s power in the party is weakening. The former Green Party MP Olga Zubová will appear on the list of ČSSD candidates for October’s elections.
>>> “It’s like spitting in decent people’s faces. It is absolutely irresponsible of Minister Kocáb…” said Prague’s councillor Jiří Janeček, referring to the human rights and minorities minister’s help with negotiating a deal between entrepreneur Petr Svinka and Prague squatters who were recently kicked out of the city’s last squat, Milada. The squatters said they do not want to live in the three flats offered to them by Svinka for a symbolic rent of CZK 1 per month, as the building’s owner intended to force other tenants out of the building by moving in the squatters.
>>> Canada is mulling reintroducing visa duty for Czech citizens in response to a surge in Czech asylum seekers. Only Mexicans filed more applications for asylum in Canada in the first half of the year. A record number of 27,000 people visited the music festival Rock for People at the weekend. A 25-kilometer tailback formed on Prague’s Jižní spojka motorway on Tuesday due to roadwork. The website containing a list of ex-secret police (StB) agents published by the former anti-communist dissident Stanislav Penc on Tuesday collapsed the same day due to visitor traffic overload. Czech prisons are overcrowded – the number of prisoners is the highest since 2000, press reported on Thursday. President Václav Klaus pardoned 15 people, including four foreigners, Czech newspapers reported on the same day. The country eventually acceded to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after Klaus signed the relevant law on Wednesday.
>>> Czech-born film director Miloš Forman was the main star of the opening of the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Friday. The American actor, producer and director John Malkovich took a Pendolino train from Vienna to Prague on Tuesday. Saying he doesn’t support autograph collectors, Malkovich refused to give signatures to his fans in Karlovy Vary the following day. The quality of films at the festival is much higher than last year, Mirka Spáčilová wrote in Mf Dnes on Wednesday.
>>> The liquor producer Karlovarská Becherovka will shift its production of Becherovka from the centre of Karlovy Vary to the town’s periphery Bohatice where the construction of a new plant started on Tuesday. After 10 years, Pivovary Staropramen will stop producing its Kelt stout, as it sees more potential in its other brands, Mf Dnes reported on Wednesday.
>>> The humid weather has ended and a few cold days are to be followed by true summer days, Právo reported on Saturday. In its Tuesday summer supplement Léto, Mf Dnes brought a detailed ‘report’ on how and what to pack for your vacation. The travel agency CK Fischer will extend its offer also to winter holiday packages, the company has told Hospodářské noviny. 422 people who spent their holidays abroad last year ended up in hospital, Mf Dnes said on Saturday. A 63-year-old tourist from Prague fell from a hill in Slovakia’s Tatra mountains while taking pictures of chamois, Právo reported on Tuesday. The declining number of foreign tourists to the Czech Republic has had an impact on the revenues of Czech prostitutes who are forced to reduce their prices, the daily Právo reported on Saturday quoting the NGO Bliss Without Risk.
>>> President Václav Klaus vetoed several laws that were part of the so-called anti-crisis package on Thursday. One of the laws was to introduce a car scrapping bonus. The sales of new passenger cars and LUVs on the Czech market decreased by 12.4% in the first half of this year. Car prices have reached their lowest level in the history of the Czech Republic, Hospodářské noviny reported on Friday. A dozen models are available for less than CZK 200,000.
>>> Jean-Francois Ott was re-elected Orco’s CEO at the company’s general assembly on Wednesday. Ivan Hašek, the new Czech Football Federation head, said on Tuesday he will lead the Czech national team as head coach until the end of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
>>> The Czech Republic won two arbitrations in the past week – a CZK 7 billion suit over Union banka and a CZK 2 billion arbitration case over the defunct television station TV3.
