(17 Nov 2014)
105-year-old Briton honoured for saving hundreds of children from Nazi death camps
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POOL
London - 11 March 2003
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1. Various of Winton being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
AP TELEVISION
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Prague - 28 October 2014
2. Sir Nicholas Winton arriving at Order of the White Lion award ceremony
3. President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman giving Order of the White Lion award to Winton
Protesters pelt President Zeman with eggs and tomatoes at anniversary celebration
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AP TELEVISION
Prague - 17 Nov 2014
4. Wide of the crowd protesting against Milos Zeman with symbolic red cards
5. SOUNDBITE: (Czech) Milos Zeman, Pesident of Czech Republic ++as Zeman speaks aides hold up umbrellas to protect him from eggs and tomatoes being thrown from crowd++
"I don't know how many of you protested at Narodni Trida (in 1989) but I was there. It is cowardliness from those who were not there to come here today and throw eggs and other objects."
6. Protesters booing Zeman
STORYLINE:
On October 28th 2014 a British man who smuggled hundreds of Jewish children out of Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939 was awarded the Order of the White Lion in Prague.
Sir Nicholas Winton, 105, was presented with the award by President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman for saving the lives of hundreds of young Jews.
Following the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, Winton arranged transport for 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia through Germany to Britain ahead of the outbreak of World War II.
The first transport left on March 14th 1939, the day before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
A final train load of 250 children, due to depart on September 3rd 1939, was prevented from leaving when Poland was invaded.
The children were taken by train to foster families in England who were willing to put up the then-huge sum of 50 pounds sterling and had agreed to look after them until they were 17.
Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003.
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Celebrations on November 17th to mark the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic became a platform for protest against the current Czech president.
To cries of "Resign! Resign!" Czechs in Prague pelted President Milos Zeman with objects including eggs, sandwiches and tomatoes, as he stood side-by-side with the presidents of Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia at the university campus where a student rally launched the revolution in Czechoslovakia a quarter of a century ago.
Security guards used big black umbrellas to shield Zeman and other presidents from flying projectiles.
German President Joachim Gauck was hit in the head by an egg as the presidents were unveiling a plaque to commemorate the 1989 events.
"Shame, shame," protesters in the crowd of thousands repeatedly shouted at Zeman, even as the other presidents were applauded.
Anger in the Czech Republic has been growing against Zeman as critics accuse him of betraying the commitment to human rights enshrined by Vaclav Havel, the hero of the Velvet Revolution who became Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president.
Zeman's opponents cite his pro-Russian stance in the Ukraine conflict, recent praise of Chinese leaders on a visit to China, and comments seen as downplaying the police crackdown 25 years ago.
He also used a strikingly vulgar term in explaining in a live radio broadcast why he did not consider the Russian punk group Pussy Riot - who spent time in a Russian prison camp over hooliganism charges - to be political prisoners.
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