>>> In reaction to Prague 5 Town Hall request, artist David Černý removed the torso of his pink army tank from the Kinský square last Friday noon. The reconstructed statue of an astronomer returned to the Old Town astronomical clock last Friday. A tree branch broke off part of the St Barbora statue on the Charles Bridge during a thunderstorm on the same day, Mf Dnes reported. “But we also have to find out what crime was committed,” Prague 7 police representative said commenting on the three-meter high sign that was placed on the hill in Letenské sady opposite to Štefánikův most on Wednesday. The sign read Griluj! (Grill!) and its author and meaning are unknown to the police.
>>> “You’re not going to fight, are you?” a nervously-looking policeman was asking the two groups of pro- and anti- Klaus demonstrators that gathered at Prague Castle on Wednesday. The Prime Minister’s 20-year-old son and two children of the Interior Minister Martin Pecina have been under nonstop police protection since last Thursday due to the neo-Nazi arrests that took place last week. “They went away disobediently. Otherwise, I had them quite under control”, Lidové noviny has quoted the head of lower house, Miloslav Vlček, commenting on the diplomatic faux pas in the Middle East when his two advisors met with Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union.
>>> Tax freedom day fell on the past Saturday this year, according to the Liberální institut. People should have a financial reserve of at least six monthly salaries at the time of financial crisis, Poštovní spořitelna recommended on Tuesday. The Czech banks have succeeded in stress tests carried out by the Czech National Bank. The Czech central bank said Czech average household debt is at half the level common across the eurozone.
>>> A new passenger terminal was opened on Wednesday at Prague’s Florenc bus station. RegioJet, owned by Student Agency, has offered the Transport Ministry operation of express trains on 15 routes, which are now run by the Czech Railways.
>>> Four 24-hour vending machines selling flowers were installed in the Prague metro. Despite the economic downturn, an average Czech has spent CZK 800 on flowers last year, 10% more than the year before, said Jana Ischiová from the Association of flower sellers and florists. Mushroom season has started – there are so many mushrooms in the Czech forests now that one could scythe them, Právo reported last Friday.
>>> Nudists celebrated the World Naturist Day in Čestlice water park near Prague on Saturday, Právo has reported. “That curly mop of hair of yours. You were beautiful, smart, funny,” the actor Václav Postránecký said about the singer Waldemar Matuška at his funeral at Prague Žofín. Matuška will be buried at the Vyšehrad cemetery between the inventor of contact lenses Otto Vichterle and the actor and comedian Vlasta Burian, Mf Dnes reported on Wednesday.
>>> Actress Kateřina Brožová announced last Friday that she will not run for MP as the top Social Democrat candidate in Teplice, citing care of her daughter as her top priority. ‘Out of wedlock children are in fashion’, a headline in Pražský deník said on Monday; almost half of firstborn children who first saw the light in the first quarter of 2009 were born to unmarried couples, according to the Czech Statistical Office.
>>> The lower house approved an anti-discrimination law by outvoting President Klaus’s veto on Wednesday.
>>> Several surveys conducted in the past week have shown that up to 40% of voters believe the new Kalousek and Schwarzenberg’s party TOP 09 has a chance to succeed in the autumn general elections. The Civic Democrats are planning to focus on female voters by addressing family issues and ecology ahead of the October parliamentary elections, while Social Democrats want to take away from the rich and give to the poor.
>>> Prague has cancelled its bid to organise 2020 Olympic Games due to the financial crisis. The preparations have cost the town 69 million.
>>> Almost one million Czechs have their accounts on Facebook, Lidové noviny reported on Wednesday. The number of shoplifters in supermarkets has been increasing recently, especially in regions affected by the economic crisis, E15 reported on Tuesday. The number of ill people fell by 31% in the first three months of the year compared to last year. The number of Czechs infected by swine flu has increased to six.
>>> Summer sales launched on Monday and are going to be bigger than ever, Lidové noviny has reported.
