Last week 46/08

With sunny weather and temperatures ranging around 20 degrees Celsius, the Indian summer broke all previous temperature records. Gale-force winds swept across the country. Barack Obama won the US presidential election, and Czech government officials joined the rest of the world in congratulating him. Apartment prices dropped. The economic crisis arrived in the Czech Republic and the Finance Ministry reduced its projection for economic growth to 3.7 percent; most Czech analysts even called the government's revised estimate „too optimistic,“ predicting that growth would drop to 2 percent - three times less than last year. „Economic growth will basically come to a standstill. We've never seen such an extensive crisis,“ European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia was quoted in the press, commenting on the global situation. The 65th anniversary of the liberation of Kiev was celebrated in Prague by participants in the battle. Ninety-five years passed since the birth of Hedy Lamarr. Due to a lack of interest in its products, Škoda Auto suspended production yet again. The first car came off the assembly line at Hyundai's Nošovice factory. Dušičky, or All Soul's Day, was celebrated in Czech cemeteries. Unidentified thieves stole dozens of urns - including the remains of the deceased - from the new synagogue in Trebíč. SOVAK, the Czech water and sewerage networks association, announced that it would triple the price of water. The national ice hockey team trounced their Slovak counterparts 7–0 on the 100th anniversary of Czech hockey. Two people were poisoned while treading on cabbage in a sauerkraut-making operation in the village of Malé Hočtice near Opava. „It was accompanied by an exceptionally loud humming sound, everything trembled very violently. We were scared,“ Rudolf Kovařík, an observer from the Český hydrometeorologický ústav (Czech Hydrometeorological Institute) in Šindelov, told the press, describing the latest earthquake to rock the Karlovy Vary region. Whooping cough returned to the Czech Republic. The media reported that Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia had stoned to death a 13-year-old girl who was accused of „adultery“ for having been attacked and raped; when the murdered girl's relatives tried to save her, commanding soldiers opened fire on them and killed a child in the crowd. Festival Radosti, a puppetry festival, was held for the last time ever in Brno. Thanks to the Social Democratic Party's (ČSSD's) offer to co-govern certain regions with the Communists, the latter returned to power for the first time since November 1989. „Today I see much more danger in the Civic Democratic Party,“ said the ČSSD's Moravian-Silesian regional leader Lubomír Zaorálek, commenting on his party's coalition with the „Reds.“ Parliament's upper chamber approved a scientific analysis accusing the Czech Communists of „inciting hatred and denying the Communist genocide“; the senators then called on the government to ask the court to outlaw the Communist Party or to at least ban the use of certain Communist symbols that contravene the constitution. The Pole tvůrčí a válečná („Fields of Creation, Fields of War“) exhibition opened at the Moravská galerie v Brně (Moravian Gallery in Brno). Radim Labuda won this year's Jindřich Chalupský prize (Cena Jindřicha Chalupeckého).

„I admit that, upon learning that Český rozhlas (Czech Radio), as the public station, broadcasts two hours of English each week without any translation and that it is not a language course, I was shocked. Because there is no support for this anywhere in the law,“ said Český rozhlas council member Dana Jaklová during a speech calling for vigorous censorship of Radio Wave, a radio station for young listeners operated by Český rozhlas. A Taurus locomotive - the fastest in the world - started tugging express trains between Prague and Brno. Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovič dismissed the director of the national stud farm in Kladruby, Lenka Gotthardová, for faulty management. Internet Mall and HP Tronic took control of the Czech online electronics market. News agencies reported that Yma Sumac had died. Eleven world-famous writers signed a petition judging the „defamatory campaign,“ they believe Respekt launched by publishing a police document from 1950, according to which the then-unknown student Milan Kundera informed on an individual fighting the anti-Communist dictatorship and thereby helped put him in prison for 14 years. „I'll fix all the road bandits' wagons. We will measure speeds day and night,“ promised the new head of the Czech traffic police force, Leoš Tržil, upon being appointed to the post. A dead-drunk traffic police officer lost control of his car in Benešov, crashed through the guardrails on a bridge and hurtled onto the railway six meters below. All four squad members in the car were hospitalized. Fishermen warned the public that Christmas carp would be more expensive this year. Residents of Braník, Podolí and Modřany started traveling to the center of Prague by ferry.