Last week 10/09

Masopust - the feast of plenty, gluttony, costumes, high spirits and unrestrained entertainment - was celebrated in Czech towns and villages. The threat of avalanches in the Krkonoše (Giant) mountains dropped from level four to level three on a five-level scale. The crown took another dramatic dive. News agencies reported that North Korea's new Taepodong 2 missile's range reaches Guam. A chlorine cloud leaked from the sewage plant in Podhradí u Vítkova, and police evacuated residents of the village. An unknown vandal knocked the toes off the front feet of the dragon hanging under the Stará radnice (Old Town Hall) in the center of Brno. Volkswagen cut back production. Economists declared that Germany's economic outlook was worsening and the expected five-percent decline would have a big impact on the Czech economy. Because of the economic crisis, the European Commission extended for EU members the possibility of drawing money from EU structural funds for 2000–2006. „The victory will certainly improve our confidence,“ said Brno midfielder David Kalivoda, commenting on his team's two-goal win over Baník. Spouses Jindřiška and Vladimir Maršík of Jaroslavice celebrated 60 years of matrimony - their diamond wedding anniversary. Accordion player Marketa Laštovičková, 14, won this year's Zlatý oříšek („Golden Nut“) prize, awarded to the most talented young musician. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited the Czech Republic. Former elite anti-corruption force detective Karel Tichý asked Interior Minister Ivan Langer to strip him of his pledge of confidentiality so he could officially testify on the now-dead mob boss František Mrázek's contacts with high-level politicians and state-administration officials. It snowed all week long. Amid concerns of spring flooding, dams started to release water. At a joint meeting, central bankers from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland called on the world to stop knocking East European currencies by expressing a lack of confidence. „I'll regret it till the end of my life. I shouldn't have done it,“ Antonín Novák, 43, told the Havlíčkův Brod court in tears; the Slovak citizen kidnapped, raped and murdered a nine-year-old boy last year, after which the victim's mother poisoned herself with coal gas in her apartment. The Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra) returned from a tour of Switzerland. The World Meteorological Organization issued its annual climate change report and declared that Arctic glaciers are melting much faster than hitherto thought. Former Transport Minister Aleš Řebíček bought himself a house in Italy and an apartment in Dubai. Statistics reveal that domestic drivers are drinking more and more: while the police found 7,593 drunks behind the wheel in 2007, last year there were 14,784. Tony Allen drummed in Prague. The Charles University (Univerzita Karlova) social-sciences faculty began to teach a new subject, „The Kundera Affair in the Czech Media, 2008.“ Pension funds' profits fell from 4.5 billion crowns to 700 million crowns.

„I have nothing, I don't know where I'll go or where I'll sleep,“ a man „with a reputation for eccentricity“ whose apartment in Brno's Králové Poli district had just burned down told a journalist from the newspaper Právo. The Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) invited Bill Clinton to its March congress. Zdeněk Jičínský celebrated his 80th birthday. Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil dismissed the Ústí nad Labem region's chief public prosecutor, Jiři Křivanec, for having previously dismissed the Liberec district's chief public prosecutor, Adam Bašný, for having previously criticized high-level politicians and judicial officials for working together to sweep the bribery case involving Deputy Prime Minister Jiří Čunek under the carpet. „Minister Pospíšil carried himself like a god commanding from on high, dismissing the ‚evil‘ Křivanec so the ‚good‘ Bašný could return - but was Křivanec acting on his own free will? Isn't it rather that he didn't like fulfilling wishes from above? Perhaps directly from the supreme state prosecutor herself?“ wrote Hospodářské noviny commentator Tomáš Němeček on the minister's course of action. At the launch of the Nordic World Ski Championship, the band Elán and singer Michal David played Liberec's Tipsport Arena, a private event that cost taxpayers 15 million crowns. Lost in the constellation of Leo, the comet Lulin missed the Earth on its pilgrimage through space. In the face of the emerging crisis, the Tatra vehicle manufacturer ordered a study for a new passenger car. Monkey Business released a new album, Twilight of Jesters. A 30-year-old woman died during a breast enlargement operation at Esthé, a prestigious Prague plastic surgery clinic. The Národní divadlo v Brně (National Theatre in Brno) staged the play Gazdina roba (The Robe of Gazda).