Last week 32/08

Ticks have already infected 1,712 people this year. Businessman Roman Vaškůj, who tried to bribe the chief witness in the Jiří Čunek case in order to have the charges against him dropped, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for evading tax on fuel imports. After the release of secret Communist military intelligence files, it was shown that four legislators are on the lists; they, however, say they are innocent. Prague city hall decided that gas lamps would return to the Charles Bridge. The Přátelé Miloše Zemana („Friends of Miloš Zeman“) association has been registered at the Interior Ministry. Klekí-petra, a.k.a. Karel Brückner, was named coach of the Austrian national football team. The first block of the Temelín nuclear power plant was shut down in order to overhaul the generator and replace the rotor. „The regions and areas did not generate any suitable female candidates,“ the Civic Democratic Party's (ODS's) spokesperson, Milan Bouška, told Aktuálně.cz, explaining why the ODS did not nominate any women for the fall elections in 27 voting precincts. The famous band Linkin Park recorded part of its upcoming album in Sono Studio in Nouzov near Prague. In the pages of the business newspaper Hospodářské noviny, a battle over the Czech crown broke out between former Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek and current Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek; „The helter-skelter movements of the crown exchange rate are clearly the most patent indicator of how ineffective the government's economic policy is,“ wrote Paroubek; „The Communists considered the exchange rate a threat, and so they fixed it artificially,“ responded Topolánek. The media reported that the German constitutional court had abolished the blanket smoking ban in restaurants because it limits free enterprise. Radovan Karadžić was taken to The Hague, where he will face trial. According to experts, the rise in apartment prices has come to an end. The high court ruled that the tabloid newspaper Šíp has to apologize and pay the Štáfek family 100,000 crowns in damages for using photos of their son's charred body. „Mladý svět was a matter of image, like the iPhone is today,“ Česká televize (Czech Television) reported in a nostalgic program about the magazine. Česká spořitelna reported record profits. The high court reduced Jaroslav Steinbauer's life sentence to 15 years because the prosecution did not manage to prove that the two-time murderer had committed the crimes for money, and because there is no rule for adding crimes together in the Czech Republic. The Environment Ministry refused to approve the highway to southern Bohemia's route through Dolní Posázaví (Lower Sazava) and Česká Sibiř (Czech Siberia), two unique natural areas. Czech male tennis players are not faring well and are being knocked out of tournaments in the first round. President Václav Klaus exercised his right to transfer power to complete negotiations on the European police force treaty to the government because he's unhappy that the newly established authority would operate within the European Union, and he wants nothing to do with it. According to a STEM survey, only 42 percent of the public trusts the local police. Trials of a cancer drug prepared by Antonín Holý's team began in the Czech Republic.

„I can easily imagine that, if there are two or three candidates, it would pay off for the ODS to invest a certain amount of energy and funds into supporting one indirectly and, at the same time, they could pull out some ‚Kubic Report III‘ on the one they didn't like,“ David Rath told Právo, explaining why he wants to cancel one of the few modernization elements pushed through by the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) not long ago - that party chairmen are elected by members in direct elections. The statistical office announced that the amount of loans Czechs have had reached 873 billion crowns by the end of last year. The Chapel of Conciliation in Blahutovice nad Odrou was repaired; the repairs were financed by joint contributions of Czech and German compatriots. Beasts of prey threatening local game made the news; this summer's predators are jackals. It was hot in the Czech Republic. Kofola must pay a 13.5-million-crown fine because, according to the anti-monopoly authority, it fixed the prices at which distributors should sell its products; the company admitted its mistake. „The change in the law on courts and judges has completely detoured from its meaning, which, in democratic countries, has been and will always be the principle of division of powers,“ wrote Iva Brožová, chairwoman of the Supreme Court, in Hospodářské noviny. The producer of Acylpyrin announced that the next supply of this product will be more expensive, and people rushed to pharmacies to stock up. The Národní strana (National Party) is heading into the elections with the platform „The final solution to the Gypsy question in the Czech lands.“ Slugs invaded.