Daily news summary

Czech Michal Berg elected to European Green Party leadership

Michal Berg from the Czech Republic’s Green Party has become a member of the European Green Party leadership. He was elected to the post at the party ’s council meeting in Belgium’s Antwerp on Sunday.

The 37-year-old IT businessman has joined the Green Party in 2010 and later became its vice-chairman. After his election e said he wanted to promote green policies across Europe and help bring European Greens together.

Hundreds attend commemorative ceremony at Terezín

Hundreds of politicians and members of the public attended the annual commemorative ceremony in Terezín, the site of a former Nazi concentration camp and the Gestapo prison during WWII.

Speaking at the gathering, marking the camp's liberation, chairman of the lower house Radek Vondráček said we cannot allow history to repeat itself and we cannot permit its misinterpretation.

Between 1940 and 1945, more than 150,000 people, mostly Jews, passed through the Terezín ghetto on their way to Nazi extermination camps; 117,000 of them did not live to see the end of the war.

Documentarist Petr Horký wins Pavel Koutecký award

This year’s Pavel Koutecký Award for Best Czech Documentary has gone to Petr Horký for his film Švéd v žigulíku or The Russian Job. The documentary follows a Swedish manager Bo Andersson who comes to Russia to save the dying automaker company Avtovaz Car, the manufacturer of Lada.

The award giving ceremony took place in Ústí nad Labem on Saturday night. Over 80 documentaries were considered for the prize, with the winner eventually selected from a shortlist of five.

Pavel Koutecký was a filmmaker who died in 2006 at the age of 50, halfway through filming Citizen Havel, a portrait of the late president that subsequently became a great success.

Up to 1,000 Czech e-stores accept Bitcoins

Number of Czech internet stores accepting Bitcoins for payments has increased tenfold over the past four years to around 1,000, the Czech News agency reported on Sunday.

Among the shops that started accepting the digital currency is Czech largest online retailer Alza, which has also installed a Bitcoin ATM in two of its showrooms. Last year, the Comfort Finance Group CFG established the first Czech cryptocurrency fund.

Viktoria Plzeň win domestic football league title

Viktoria Plzeň have been crowned Czech football league champions after a 2:1 win over Teplice on Saturday evening. The West Bohemians secured the title one round before the end of the season and gave themselves a seven point lead on second-placed Slavia.

Plzeň, which won the league for the fifth time within the past eight years and for the third time in a row, have secured a spot in the Champions League’s playoffs next season.

Fuksa wins gold at 500m Canoe Sprint World Championships

The Czech Republic’s Martin Fuksa has won another gold at the Canoe Sprint World Championships event in Hungary’s Szeged. A day after picking up gold in the 1,000 metres, Fuksa topped the podium in the 500 metres on Sunday.  The 25-year old Czech finished more than half a second ahead of Oleg Tarnovschi of Moldova.

Weather

Monday is expected to be mostly sunny with daytime high reaching up to 25 degrees Celsius.