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Czech-born Jesuit priest Tomas Spidlik - one of 30 Vatican priests elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II - is shown on several front pages this morning wearing his red cardinal's cap or "biretta" and receiving congratulations from his colleagues. Also on the front pages today - Health Minister Marie Souckova, who seems to have averted disaster after finding money for the country's indebted regional hospitals.

All the papers today lead with different stories. LIDOVE NOVINY features a photograph of the legendary Czech singer Hana Hegerova, who celebrated her 72nd birthday at Prague's National Theatre on Monday. PRAVO features a tired and exhausted David Blaine, who spent forty-four days in a glass cage in London with only water to keep him alive. The Czech- born former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, steals the show in MLADA FRONTA DNES, having been welcomed by hundreds of fans during a book signing in Prague.

Monday's Czech dailies don't find one main domestic story. While MLADA FRONTA DNES leads with changes in the prices of car insurance, the main headline in LIDOVE NOVINY shouts "Bomb on tracks stops trains". HOSPODARSKE NOVINY's main front-page story focuses on a widening gap between richer regions with a low unemployment-rate and poorer ones where the number of jobless people keeps rising.

President Vaclav Klaus's speech in the lower house on Thursday makes headlines in most Czech dailies. In his first address to the lower house as President, Mr Klaus criticised, among other things, the coalition government's reform of public finances. LIDOVE NOVINY writes his speech provoked mixed reactions in the chamber - only members of the opposition Civic Democrats, a party headed for many years by none other than Mr Klaus, agreed with what he said.

China's first man in space Yang Liwei makes a front-page appearance on all the Czech dailies today: the Chinese astronaut is shown waving to the crowds after orbiting the earth 14 times in his Shenzhou 5 craft. Also making headlines today - a record compensation payout for a man who lost a healthy kidney, and the Pirate of Prague Viktor Kozeny, counting his pennies as he gazes out at the turquoise sea of the Bahamas.

One man dominates the front pages today - and that man is the former president Vaclav Havel - shown receiving the country's highest state distinctions. The papers have all noted the public snub to him by President Klaus who absented himself from the ceremony on what the papers call a very flimsy excuse.

Making the headlines today - news that former Communist official Karel Hoffman has lost his appeal in court for his role in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion, claims that the police routinely ignore traffic regulations, and surprising reports that three-fifths of university students would be willing to pay some of their tuition fees.

All the papers today report on the police operation "Fantine" in which thousands of police stormed brothels across the country in a drive to stamp out trafficking in women. Most papers feature photos from Iraq on their front pages: soldiers armed to the teeth, flames and wreckage after another terrorist attack in Iraq.

The news that former president Vaclav Havel has failed to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize came too late for Friday's papers of course - although several commentators do ponder over Mr Havel's presidential career and falling popularity at home. Also making headlines today - the current president, Vaclav Klaus, invited by Ombudsman Otakar Motejl to explain his recent scathing attack on the institution.

There is one name for success in all of today's papers and that name is Arnold: Czech headlines read "Shwarzenegger on top in California", "Arnold wins", and "Terminator turns governor" after the 56-year-old actor successfully swept the governor's race in the sunny U.S. state. MLADA FRONTA DNES even pictures statues of Arnie in a wax museum displaying the actor's evolution: from a long-haired barbarian named Conan, to a badly damaged cyborg, to today's well-dressed politician.