Actress Bohdalova, cosmonaut Remek to get top state award

Czech President Milos Zeman has decided to bestow the Order of the White Lion, the top state award, on Jirina Bohdalova, a popular actress, and Vladimir Remek, the first Czechoslovak cosmonaut from 1978, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) said on Friday, citing the list of proposed laureates. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrej Babis, in whose trust fund the MfD belongs, said he has signed about 30 of Zeman's proposals for granting state awards. Zeman plans to bestow the Order of the White Lion, 1st Class on Bohdalova, 90, who supported Zeman in the presidential election and who received a Medal of Merit from him in 2013, the paper said. The top award is also to go to Remek, 73, who became the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States in March 1978, when he joined Russian Alexei Gubarev aboard the Soyuz 28 spacecraft.