Czech Oscar winning director Jiri Menzel dies at age 82
PRAGUE Jiri Menzel, a Czech director whose 1966 movie Closely Watched Trains won the Academy Award for the best foreign language film has died. Three years ago, Menzel underwent a brain operation and was kept in an artificially induced coma for several weeks after it. Unlike colleagues such as Milos Forman, Jan Nemec and Ivan Passer, Menzel didnt emigrate after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Closely Watched Trains was his first feature movie. His 1985 comedy My Sweet Little Village was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign film.
Writer Milan Kundera donating archive to Czech library
PRAGUE Milan Kundera, the 91-year-old author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being and other acclaimed novels, has decided to donate his private library and archive to a public library in the Czech city where he was born and spent his childhood. The Moravian Library in the city of Brno said Thursday that the entire collection would be transported from Kunderas apartment in Paris in the fall. Everything will be made available to the public, mostly in digital versions, the library said. Czech Culture Minister Lubomir Zaoralek welcomed the move, calling it an extraordinary cultural event.Kundera fled communist Czechoslovakia and has lived in France since 1975. His later works, written in French, have not yet been translated into Czech.
Czechs to sign deal to buy 12 US military by year's end
The Czech defense minister says the government is planning to sign a deal with the U.S. government by year's end to purchase 12 military helicopters. Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar says the deal is worth the worth 14.6 billion Czech crowns ($631 million) and the helicopters are to be delivered in 2023 to replace the obsolete Soviet-made Mi-24s. The Czechs will get eight UH-1Y Venom choppers and four AH-1Z Vipers from U.S. maker Bell Hellicopter. Metnar said Tuesday the contract includes equipment, ammunition, spare parts and training of the personnel. He said the deal best covers the need of the Czech air forces.
Love travel? This airline is hiring 1,000 flight attendants
If you love to travel and wouldnt mind a new job, Delta Air Lines is hiring 1,000 flight attendants for its 2020 class. Delta is encouraging anyone who is bilingual in English and Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean or Spanish to consider the job. The airline will also be looking for people who have at least a year of work experience in personalized customer service, patient care or a similar role, as well as experience ensuring the safety and/or care of others. Those who are hired will go through a six-week training and then join 25,000 other flight attendants who work for Delta. These good Samaritans volunteer plane, time to rescue animals]Graham Media Group 2019