Last week 5/2007

Astronomers kicked off International Heliophysical Year at their conference in Prague. Snow dusted the country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Czech Republic. „The women cried that night and the men weren't far from it,“ Blanka Krpalová, who lives in a village in the Karlovy Vary region, told reporters, describing the impact of the hurricane-strength winds that blew the roofs off of their homes and caused a power outage in villages in the vicinity.

Ninety-eight days after suffering a serious head injury, goalkeeper Petr Čech returned to the pitch with Chelsea and let in just two goals. Czech steelmakers issued a press release saying they were breaking production records thanks to the boom in Central European car manufacturing.

Jan Zahradil became the government envoy for further talks on the fate of the European constitution. The Czech crown weakened. „I can't remember anymore what the money was, but our family undoubtedly saved it, we weren't and aren't poor – I'm a mayor and my wife's a private physician,“ said Vsetín Mayor and Senator Jiří Čunek, whom the police have charged with bribery, explaining the origin of the 497,000 crowns he deposited in his bank account just three days after the Vsetín company HB Real, with which he had cooperated on several public contracts as mayor, had withdrawn 499,000 crowns from its bank account.

The Central Bohemian District Office fired five clerks for playing cards online on the job. Helena Vondráčková became Prima TV's latest draw. The Regional Court in Olomouc ruled that a local veterinary clinic had not killed the smallest dog in the world, Ondra, during an unsuccessful operation five years ago, but that the chihuahua had died from hydrocephalus; thus the veterinarians do not have to pay Ondra's owners the 100,000 crowns in damages the dog owners had sued for.

Newspapers reported that, after a third successful transplant, a team of French doctors had given a new face to a young man suffering from Recklinghausen disease, which freakishly deforms the soft tissue and is also known as Elephant Man's Syndrome.

A young mother saved her four-year-old son's life by covering him with her body during a fire in an apartment building in Třinec; the 25-year-old woman died. Ombudsman Otakar Motejl caught up with President Václav Klaus in a popularity poll. An expedition of Czech polar explorers reached their station on James Ross Island in Antarctica after a three-day journey.

On a crossing near Přerov, the Pendolino express train ran into a semi-truck that had driven onto the tracks despite the warning signal; the engineer, however, saw the danger in time, slowed the train to 10 kilometers per hour, and even managed to warn the passengers to brace themselves for the crash.

Cruiserweight boxer Rudy Kraj won his 10th professional fight. Budvar's management launched a new beer, called Pardál. Former Informatics Minister Vladimír Mlynář was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to found his own company while still in office and entrust it with operating the public administration's internet portal, which the judge ruled was at variance with the law.

The Commercial Inspection found that restaurants in the Karlovy Vary Region shortchanged their customers the most and restaurants in Zlín the least. The US government asked Mirek Topolánek's cabinet to commence talks on the possibility of locating an American anti-missile base in the Czech Republic that would shoot down missiles fired at its allies by hostile regimes such as Iran or North Korea.

The Foreign Ministry recalled its consul in Liberia on suspicion that he had „committed several crimes“ there. After entering the power, healthcare, and arms industries, the investment group Penta decided to branch out into telecommunications as well. Administrative proceedings began in Brno against Deputy David Šeich (Civic Democrats), who drove the wrong way down one-way street while completely drunk last year, refused to take a breathalyzer test, and has been off the hook ever since.

The National Gallery held a week of free admission. Plzeňský Prazdroj officials sealed a message for future generations in the historical vaults of its brewery in Plzeň. The European emissions market crashed, with the price of one tonne of emissions plummeting from an original price of 31 euros to just three euros. MC Indy and DJ Wich celebrated the release of their new album, Hádej kdo, at the Roxy in Prague.