ST. VITUS

The Catholic Church and the government reached a settlement March 30 on the ownership and operation of St. Vitus Cathedral, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reports. After a 14-year battle, the church will hand ownership over to the state April 16, and admission fees will be waived starting April 5, presidential spokesman Jiří Weigl said.

A five-person delegation from the U.S. Defense Department will be in the Czech Republic through April 6 to evaluate a potential site for a radar base, the Defense Ministry said. The experts will measure electromagnetic waves at the Brdy military area southwest of Prague. The United States asked the country in January to host the base as part of its missile-defense system.

Restoration work has begun on Old Town Square’s landmark statue of 15th-century religious leader Jan Hus. The Galerie of the City of Prague says the statue, which was covered by scaffolding last weekend, will be under construction for at least a year. The statue was last renovated in 2000 and is restored every eight years.

A suspicious package discovered in Brno City Hall March 30 was an explosive device, police have confirmed. The device was in a briefcase in the building’s lost-and-found office. The building was evacuated while the bomb was safely removed. Police continue to investigate the source of the bomb.

The three-party coalition government agreed April 2 to pass a tax and social reform plan designed to halt the growing national debt, ČTK reported. The coalition was scheduled to pass the resolution April 3. The changes include lowering income tax to a flat 15 percent rate, lowering corporate tax and cutting a variety of benefits, including parental leave and birth allowances. The opposition says the plan will only benefit the wealthy.

UK

Fifteen British military personnel detained by Iranian authorities off the Iraqi coast March 23 have all admitted trespassing into Iranian waters, Iran’s state-run television station reported April 2. The UK government continues to insist its personnel were in Iraqi waters when they were apprehended and refuses to back down in its call for their unconditional release.

In what is considered a landmark case in Holocaust restitution, Germany’s largest retailer agreed March 30 to pay 88 million euros ($117 million/2.5 billion Kč) to the original owners of a land plot in central Berlin. The Wertheim family operated a department store there before it was seized by the Nazis. The payment, one of the largest ever granted in a Holocaust restitution case, will be shared by the Jewish Claims Conference and Wertheim descendants.

Leading presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal have clashed over France’s immigration policy just weeks before elections scheduled for April 22. Sarkozy, the candidate for the right-leaning UMP party, said at a news conference April 2 that “uncontrolled immigration” has “exasperated” France. Royal, the Socialist candidate, has criticized Sarkozy for having an anti-immigration stance.

Two former police officers accused of beating a Romany man to death in 2001 told a Slovak court April 2 they don’t know how the victim died. Karol Sendrei, 51, was arrested in Magnezitovce, east Slovakia, after a scuffle with the town mayor. Prosecutors say Sendrei was tied to a radiator in the police station, beaten and jumped on, and sustained 10 broken ribs. The trial began in 2003.

President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called early elections April 2. The decree was issued in response to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s moves to persuade pro-Yushchenko lawmakers to join his camp despite a new law requiring lawmakers to stay with their party during an election. Parliament called the action legally baseless and blocked funding for the new election, set for May 27. Thousands of supporters of both sides rallied in Kyiv March 31.

Danish researchers reported April 1 that they have discovered how to convert all blood into the universal donor type. The scientists say they have isolated bacterial enzymes that safely and effectively transform types A, B and AB blood into Type O blood. The discovery could relieve blood-supply shortages.