Last week 21/2006

Vivienne Westwood held a fashion show at the Prague Castle. Lakšmí Mittal celebrated his silver wedding anniversary at Žofin Palace. Dentists introduced waiting lists. 150 liters of nitric acid leaked from barrels onto the ground in front of a dairy in Moravské Budějovice. The European Parliament definitively approved the European Union’s budget. “It was for educational reasons,” said presidential advisor Miroslav Macek, explaining why he boxed Health Minister David Rath’s ears at the Stomatology Chamber convention; some time ago Rath said to Lidové noviny in reference to Macek: “You know, I’ve known him from back in the days when he used to come to each party with a different young lady, and then he suddenly married into millions – well, some love the spirit, some love the body, some love money.” After being boxed by Macek, Rath sprung up, stood dazed for a moment and shook his head, and then the bystanders thought it better to separate the two men. The Da Vinci Code hit the cinemas. Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek announced that taxpayers would contribute a billion crowns to the construction of a national football stadium for the corrupt Czech league, and the football association’s vice chairman Vlastimil Košťál then sent word that everyone who doesn’t approve of the squandering of money on corrupt Czech football “can go play, say, pool.”

The town of Světlá launched a poll to choose the town’s most beautiful tree, Strom Světelska. The high price of gas increased interest in liquid petroleum gas. Clerks from the antimonopoly section of the European Commission searched the headquarters of gas companies in many locations throughout Europe, including the parent company of the Czech firm RWE Transgas, with the aim of finding evidence of illegal cartel agreements. “I’m done with coal, I want to devote time to my family, I’ve started studying psychology, I’m interested in philosophy,” declared Buddhist and coal baron Antonín Koláček after the “boy from Motoinvest” Pavel Tykač bought part of his company Mostecká uhelná. The Prague Stock Exchange hit a record low for this year. The Czech Republic and the United States signed a supplemental convention on the bilateral extradition of sentenced and tried citizens. Czech citizens’ savings in shares funds climbed to one-quarter trillion crowns. The Olga Havlová Award, which is given each year to people who help others despite their own handicap, was bestowed on Lenka Hegrová, a member of Brno’s League for the Rights of the Wheelchair-bound. Former Charles University rector Ivan Wilhelm became the government representative for European research. The cabinet released a quarter billion crowns to buy the land of farmer Jan Rajter, whose farmstead was ruined by the authorities when they permitted the Mexican firm Nemak’s highly toxic production facility to be located directly next to it through not entirely transparent and legal means. “He was curious about the world, he wanted to go, so he did,” said Mladá Boleslav resident Ludmila Kvapilová (87) in response to the news that Swedish sailors had rescued her seriously ill son Jiří Kvapil (49) from a small raft on the sea off the Norwegian coastline as he was apparently trying to float to America. Právo announced to its readers in a front-page story that Paul McCartney’s marriage was falling apart. The media printed U.N. statistics showing that the organization’s peace keeping troops still – and increasingly – abuse and sexually harass women in the societies they are sent to protect. Industry Minister Milan Urban signed a contract with the heads of Hyundai in Soul for the construction of a new carmaker in the Beskydy Region. Heavy rain once again surprised many Czech drivers. “Considering that I’d criticized the previous leadership, it only seemed fair to criticize the current one as well,” said Green Party parliamentary candidate Petr Uhl, explaining why he and sixteen other Green Party regional heavyweights decided to sign a letter criticizing the party’s leadership for poor organization of the election campaign and its opaque financing three weeks before the election. The Russian company Tvel became the new supplier of fuel for Temelín nuclear power plant. Studies published by Mladá fronta DNES revealed that Czechs don’t steal at work like they used to. “The plantation vegetation which we’re going to call forests won’t have anything in common with forests at all – they’ll be fields devoid of life, intended just for ‘timber production,’” Jan Farkač, expert from Czech Agricultural University and one of the authors of an alarming report on the state of Czech forests recently signed by 240 academics, foresters, geologists, and biologists, said to reporters describing the near future of domestic forests. The Odyssea excursion boat crashed into one of the pillars of the Charles Bridge and almost sunk. The Czech currency strengthened to 28.10 per euro and economists advised the public that it was the best time to buy foreign currencies for the forthcoming summer holidays.