Last week 47/08

After just under half of a century of the rule of Communist law, parliament passed a new penal code. St. Martin came to the country. Europe commemorated the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I with reverent events across the continent. A renovated supermarket in Česká Lípa collapsed. Kroměříž firefighters extracted and saved a pony that had fallen into the reservoir in Břest. The cost of public transport in Brno rose. In an effort to prevent or at least not support the slowing of the economy, the Česká národní banka (Czech National Bank) reduced interest rates from 3.5 to 2.75 percent, which is the biggest drop in the last six years. Javelin thrower Barbora Špotáková was named athlete of the year. An armed robber tied up a guard at the museum in Nový Bydžov and stole two paintings, Václav Špála's Zátiší s ovocem (Still Life with Fruit) and Jan Zrzavý's Domek na Ile de Sein (Small House on the Ile de Sein). „Due to his stances, Mr. Ganley is, in a way, a dissident in his own country and I would like to support him like this: We were happy when politicians from the West came to our country and met with our dissidents during Communism,“ said Czech President Václav Klaus explaining why he met with Irish businessman Declan Ganley, who is organizing a movement against the EU's Treaty of Lisbon, during a official visit by Irish government officials. „Mr. Klaus is confusing historical concepts, and hence is engaging in absolutely ridiculous and absurd declarations,“ remarked Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin referring to the Czech head of state's remark. Thanks to a coalition with the victorious Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), pre-Velvet Revolution graduates of Bolshevik schools - secretaries of the Communist party's (KSČ's) regional and district committees - gained top posts in the Karlovy Vary and Moravian-Silesian regions. Nová Říše's annual štrúdlování, a contest to find the best local strudel, was held. An expedition of Czech Egyptologists set off to the mountains of Gilf Kebir to explore the mysterious „Cave of Swimmers“. Following a drop in petroleum prices, the price of meat fell; slaughterhouse owners warned the public that unless demand rises, massive lay-offs will ensue. The Czech government began evacuating the restituted Koloděj chateau.

Newspapers reported on the case of 13-year-old British girl Hannah Jones, who, against her doctor's wishes, won the right not to undergo multiple operations for her heart condition. „I've had enough hospitals and I want to spend the remainder of my life at home, with my family,“ the schoolgirl, who has spent most of the last eight years in hospital, either being treated for leukemia or for her terminal heart condition, told the Daily Mirror newspaper. Pavel Zajíček and Gary Lucas performed the English-Czech poet-concert program Broken Languages at the Czech National Building in New York. Malá Hanoj („Little Hanoi“), the largest Vietnamese market in the Czech Republic, located in Prague's Libuše neighborhood – burned down. Czech companies donated three-quarters of a billion crowns to charity organizations and thereby equaled last year's record. CS Cargo began taking control of its 100-percent stake in CS Expres and entered the package delivery market. Culture Minister Václav Jehlička came out with an idea to enact marriage for life. „Minister Julínek did not have time this time due to the spiraling political situation; otherwise he is communicating with Europe regarding Alzheimer's very intensively,“ said Health Ministry spokesperson Tomáš Cikrt reacting to Česká gerontologická a geriatrická společnost (Czech Gerontology & Geriatric Society, CGGS) criticism that there was no Czech official alongside France's president and various EU ministers at the recent international conference on Alzheimer's disease in Paris; at the event CGGS chairwoman Iva Holá criticized Czech politicians for a „long-lasting and total lack of interest in seniors.“ Unemployment dropped moderately. The organized crime unit accused inspectors at the electricity giant ČEZ of blackmailing customers, by first accusing them of „illegal consumption of power,“ then cutting their electricity off, then forcing them to fork over hundreds of thousands of crowns for allegedly breaking the seals on their electric meters. A train crash near Hlavičkův Brod injured eight. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek said on TV that, if his government announces a date for adopting the euro at all, it will happen next year at the earliest. The Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) and Green Party (SZ) argued over a proposal by Education Minister Ondřej Liška, of the Greens, to legalize marijuana. Meteorologists learned that November would be warm and that cold weather would not arrive until St. Nicholas's Day on December 6th.