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Photo: www.radiotv.cz A Czech broadcaster presented her show naked this week - after losing an on-air bet, the Anonova.com news site reported this week. With just a painted-on bikini to cover her modesty, DJ Veronika braved the airways and a webcam at her station Kiss Proton in Plzeň, west Bohemia. The thirty-year-old DJ had bet colleagues that no-one would win a name-that-tune contest. She was horrified when one lucky listener scooped the prize but gamely agreed to honour the wager. "Being naked was OK," she said. "The only problem was that every man on the station found an excuse to come and see me that morning."

Two young Czechs –brother and sister were arrested by the police this week when they attempted to fake a robbery in a pub. The young woman, who worked there as a waitress, came up with the plan and got her brother to act the part of the robber – for the benefit of the security camera installed there. Clearly though neither had attended drama class because their performance was so bad it gave everything away. Worst of all, the police say, was the fight in which the brother pretended to slap his sister about until she collapsed on the ground but, for fear of hurting her, his hands barely swept her cheeks. Officers arrived on his doorstep within minutes of seeing the pub movie and the young man was so surprised he didn’t put up any resistance.

An offer to grab a beer saved the life of a mentally deranged man in Plzeň this week. The man climbed onto the sill of an open window stark naked, stopping traffic on a busy Plzeň street. He called out to passes by that he had nothing to hide and would jump when an off-duty policeman who was passing by had the presence of mind to call out to the man and suggest they grab a beer at the pub. The man was easily persuaded and soon ambulance workers were leading him out of the building. As he was getting into the ambulance he turned back to call out to the policeman “can’t make it now pal, but we’ll meet at the pub this evening!”

Passions running high in an opera house are perfectly understandable and people come expecting to see a drama unfold but in the west Bohemian town of Mariánské Lázně the drama spilled over into normal life when a tenor attempted to murder a baritone singer – presumably over the favours of a prima donna. The man lured him out on a drive after the performance and attempted to strangle him on the D5 highway. The baritone singer managed to escape and called the police. His attacker has just received a ten year sentence for attempted murder.

A prisoner who is serving a 16 year jail sentence for murdering a former friend is taking the Valdice prison to court for allegedly damaging his health. The man says he was forced to breathe cigarette smoke despite the fact that he is a non-smoker. He is demanding ten million crowns and an apology. Now the man is a well-known complainer – he has filed dozens of complaints ranging from the quality of food served in the jailhouse to the fact that it allegedly failed to provide a friendly working environment. Regional courts rejected his complaints as ludicrous but they are going to have to think again – the man took his case to the Constitutional Court which ordered a lower court to re-open the smoking case. The Valdice prison claims that his complaints are totally unjustified and that it has a ten year old policy of separating smokers from non-smokers in their cells. Smoking anywhere else in the jailhouse –except in the yard –is forbidden even for employees.

Photo: CTK Jaroslav Hašek’s Good Soldier Schweik has been translated into 54 languages and he has fans the world over –most especially in Europe where Hašek’s satire is easily comprehensible. Mladá fronta Dnes reports that a new translation of the popular novel has just come out in Poland where a statue of the good soldier can be found – with him sitting on a bench – a perfect setting for holiday snapshots in which people can pose alongside him. Today his fans argue over what Schweik would have made of the present political situation or the endless series of political scandals – keeping his image very much alive. More translations are emerging – though sometimes it’s a struggle to get the message across. In a recent interview for the daily, Vietnamese translator Tran Ngok Chan who is currently translating the work said the funny scenes were often hard to get across – we’re just not used to laughing at our leaders – what you see as funny we see as a plain insult. Well, maybe it’s a good time to start. We Czechs know that poking fun of politicians is an endless source of fun.