Czech leader’s pen act, Youtube hit

Video showing Vaclav Klaus pocketing pen during Latin American meeting gets 1.5 million views

Czech leader's pen act, Youtube hit

Video showing Vaclav Klaus pocketing pen during Latin American meeting gets 1.5 million views

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A video grab showing Klaus (left) holds the penu00a0and then slyly pockets it while Chile leader Pinera praises him on television

Vaclav Klaus, a conservative who has attracted international news coverage more often in recent years as a result of his combative Eurosceptic views, is shown in the clip opening a box containing the pen at the start of a press conference alongside Sebasti n Pi ufffdera.

As Pi ufffdera addresses journalists and gives Klaus an enthusiastic welcome, the Czech president takes the pen out, examines it carefully, moves his hands under the table, shuffles with his jacket, then buttons it up with both hands and finally lets his empty hands emerge above the table again to close the case.

A copy later showed up on YouTube with the headline 'President of Czech Republic steals pen', complete with the addition of a crime scene soundtrack and red circles and arrows highlighting various points in Klaus's manoeuvre.

Versions of the clip have been viewed over a million times. A spokesman for Klaus said that it was "a common pen with a logo of the state or office, which presidents and members of their delegation receive during state visits".

The pens are encrusted with Chilean lapis lazuli stones, which are prized for their intense blue colour, but a spokeswoman for Pi ufffdera said the Chilean president's guests were free to take them.

"All I have to say is, it is not a pen but just a stylus," Klaus himself said on Tuesday, adding that he takes things all the time.

He said he had a pen from a Nato summit in October and a notepad from the Latvian parliament. "It is what people do regularly. They keep notepads and pens from such events," he said.

But back in the Czech Republic, the clip has inspired a Facebook campaign in which the public is being asked to contribute to a special collection for him.

Participants are asked to send pens to Klaus' office on May 2 "as the president obviously has nothing to write with", according to the Facebook group.

Toilet paper thief
A German politician has been caught after janitors collared him red-handed pilfering toilet roll from the gents in the town hall. Janitors' suspicions were raised when more than 200 rolls vanished and they laid a trap for Frank-Michael John, a member of the Die Linke party.

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