“Christopher Columbus and his sailors who brought tobacco from America to Europe are to be blamed for smoking,” said ČSSD Senator Vladimír Dryml during a Senate debate on the new smoking law last Friday. During the same debate, ODS Senator Jaroslav Kubera talked about a potential ban on sex on Sunday, Lidové noviny reported on Saturday. Pop star Karel Gott suffered from an unspecified sexual deviation according to a communist secret police file, the news site Aktuálně.cz reported on Wednesday.
>>> A Czech tourist got lost in southeast Siberia, ČTK reported on Tuesday. The last 114 clients of the bankrupt Tomi Tour have returned from their holiday on Monday night, Právo has reported. 290 photographs and about 40 videos depicting Topolánek and other politicians and lobbyists on their holiday on a yacht in Italy were provided to the daily Mf Dnes by the former head of Czech civilian intelligence, Karel Randák. Randák said he had been hired by an unknown person to collect compromising material on ODS head Mirek Topolánek ahead of the autumn elections, Mf Dnes reported on Thursday.
>>> KSČM head Vojtěch Filip wanted to trade his party’s apology for the crimes committed by the Communists in the past for political cooperation with the Social Democrats after the elections. ČSSD head Jiří Paroubek ruled out such cooperation, adding that there is not much time left before the October elections to deal with such a “serious matter”, the press reported on Thursday. The political programmes of the Communists and the Social Democrats are to a great extent similar, political analysts addressed by ČTK have said.
>>> Margarita or Eliška, that is the question for ČSSD leader Jiří Paroubek and his wife who are considering what to call their daughter, who is to be born in autumn. The Czech Trade Inspectorate prohibited the sale of two-piece swimsuits designated for children under seven years of age, Právo reported on Tuesday. The 17-year-old son of a Romanian Roma king was hospitalized at the Vinohrady teaching hospital on the weekend after he almost drowned while swimming in Stará Boleslav. Dozens of his Romanian relatives came to support him, camping out on the premises of the hospital.
>>> The European Union expressed solidarity with the Czech Republic on Monday on the issue of Canadian visas that had been reintroduced by Canada earlier this month, but it is not planning to introduce visas for Canada, Lidové noviny reported on Tuesday. Canada has decided to ease the visa application process for Czechs. As of Wednesday, Czech applicants for Canadian visas do not need to fill in the Supplementary Information Form, but only the standard visa form and Additional Family Information, Právo has reported. The Canadian Senate speaker might discuss the visa issue during his autumn visit to the Czech Republic, the Czech News Agency said on Tuesday.
>>> Outdoor swimming pools are experiencing a bad season this summer; they have recorded 50% to 75% fewer visitors compared to last year. A thunderstorm last Thursday lasted only a few minutes but caused damages worth millions of crowns and killed two people. 150,000 households were left without electricity. The number of victims of the June floods has risen to 15.
>>> Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright came to Prague on Friday to take part in a seminar on cervical cancer. The OECD has warned that the share of Czech healthcare on GDP was at 6.8% in 2007, the third lowest among OECD countries. The number of people infected with swine flu has increased rapidly in the past week. Seventy-five people were diagnosed with HIV in the first half of the year. There is a lack of 100,000 blood donors in the Czech Republic, Právo reported on Tuesday.
>>> A straw stack burnt down on Monday night in Kněževes in the Rakovník district, Právo reported on Tuesday. South Moravian KDU-ČSL members, as well as party head Cyril Svoboda, expressed their disagreement with the construction of a second mosque in Brno, ČTK reported earlier this week.
>>> First true flea market took place at Prague’s náměstí Míru on Saturday. Hundreds of “ducks”, or Citroën 2CVs, from all over the world have been flocking to Most in northern Bohemia since Tuesday. The brand-new ForCity tram started operating in Prague last Friday. Roman Kreuziger finished ninth in Tour de France on Sunday, the best performance by Czech cyclist in history. Thanks to recycling, Prague citizens saved as many as 324,000 trees last year.
>>> The ambitious retail chain Žabka is planning to have 500 stores in the Czech Republoic within five years. Currently there are 57 Žabka outlets. Budějovický Budvar has started importing beer to the United Arab Emirates, Hospodářské noviny reported on Thursday. Plzeňský prazdroj launched the sale of its bargain brands in plastic bottles last Thursday, Hospodářské noviny has reported. The American ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s opened its first Czech store in Prague’s Na Příkopě street last Friday.
>>> The Prague bourse PX index has hit the highest level since October 2008 earlier this week.
