RESIDENCY - President Václav Klaus signed into law April 10 a bill that cuts in half the amount of time it takes a foreigner here to get a permanent residency permit to five years. The Interior Ministry estimates as many as 30,000 foreigners now qualify for permanent resident status. An estimated 17,000 people applied for that status in 2005.

FLU - Villages near Bavorovice, south Bohemia, are to remain under quarantine for at least another three weeks as two more dead swans found in the area tested positive for bird flu April 8. To date, 10 swans have died from the disease in this country, and three have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

THEFT - Czech tennis star Kateřina Böhmová, 19, and her mother were nabbed April 5 on suspicion of stealing merchandise totaling $450 (10,418 Kč) from a Jacksonville, Florida, department store. The two women, who claimed to be looking for a bathroom when they left the store, were released the following day on $5,000 bail and will stand trial April 27.

ACCUSED - Prague Mayor Pavel Bém is suggesting that Green Party Chairman Martin Bursík inappropriately used his influence to secure more than 2 million Kč ($86,400) in financial subsidies to restore his Baroque house in Malá Strana in the 1990s. Bém said the subsidies were unusually high, and noted that Bursík was working in City Hall at the time of the renovations.