Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 6.2.2008

Quality of young wines will be proved by army of tasters

This year 701 samples from 115 vine-growers will contest in an international competition of young wines Vinum Juvenale 2007. Besides vine-growers from Bohemia and Moravia also winedressers from Slovenia and South America sent up their products from last year's harvest. On a registration list there are prevailing white wines, in an overwhelming majority it is dealt with a late harvest and selection of grapes, Miroslav Karbula, a director of the competition said. A special commission will degust the wines on the 11th of February and results will be announced in nine days. The entered samples will be evaluated by a commission of taster of record size. While last year 720 samples were evaluated by about 80 specialists, this year it will be 125, one of them will come from Slovenia. A winner will be proclaimed on Wednesday the 20th of February in the Interhotel Voroněž in Brno.

Representatives passed fox-hunting. Ecologists are furious

Conservationists are angry. Representatives passed a law yesterday according to which hunting dogs in training will be able to come in a direct contact with the hunted game. It concerns training of hunting dogs in so called den hunt. Dogs are looking for foxes in dens. Today it is hold that in the end of a training den a fox is in a cage so that the dog could not hurt it. Newly huntsmen will be allowed to remove the grill in training. “The fact that it was passed is bad”, Vojtěch Kotecký from the Hnutí Duha (Movement Rainbow) says. “Huntsmen argue that they don't have any different way to effectively train dogs than in a den with a direct contact with a fox. But I see in it rather their entertainment. However, an entertainment which tortures foxes is bad. A solution is don't make entertainment”, Kotecký said.

CR makes up for Germany in prices, Poland is cheapest

Times when our west neighbours went in droves in Czech borderland to buy cheaper foods are definitively past. A recent investigation of prices of selected goods in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia made by MF DNES shows that the Czech Republic starts to be rather an expensive country in the region. A sample of 25 products, above all foods and drug-store goods was even slightly cheaper in Germany than here; Polish goods are still cheaper. On the contrary purchase in Slovakia and in Austria is more expensive. “Prices especially of foods still converge and they will further converge”, Tomáš Drtina from a consultancy firm Incoma forecasts.

Chains still have to offer beverages with returnable packages

Premises of trade chains have to still supply in shops beverages in returnable unearned bottles. They are bound by a law on wastes and according the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) it is not enough so that they have the beverage only in a store. NSS introduced it in a decision whereby he confirmed a fine 5000 crowns for the company Ahold, Sylva Dostálová, a spokeswoman of the court said today to ČTK. If one beverage is produced in a non-returnable and in a returnable package, a seller according to law has to offer the more ecological variant. The duty concerns shops with acreage bigger than 200 squared meters.