Last week 22/09

After the "most challenging repair in the history of NASA," the Hubble Space Telescope as released back into its orbit from the Atlantis space shuttle and began to send images from distant corners of the universe to Earth. Entropa returned to the Czech Republic from Brussels. Warm, beautiful weather coaxed Prague residents out on trips and walks along the Berounka river. The 3.4-percent drop in GDP in the first quarter of 2009 confirmed that the Czech Republic is experiencing the greatest economic crisis in its history. The Pope joined Facebook. The media reported that the trial of Burmese democratic opposition leader and Nobel Prize Peace winner Aung San Suu Kyi had begun in Burma. According to official statistics, the number of computer pirates has dropped. A newspaper photographed Czech national football team member Roman Bednář as he bought cocaine from a dealer in the English town of West Bromwich, where he plays.
"Even if you are cutting costs, you do not have to shout it out on every corner, on the contrary - we should spread the good mood and contribute to the overall transformation of the social psyche," Roland Mahler, general manager of T-Mobile Czech Republic, told the business daily Hospodářské noviny, explaining his view of what helps most in coping with the current economic crisis. The Transport Ministry warned drivers that it may raise the price of toll stickers. School-leaving exams started. IKEA announced that more coffee was being consumed in its restaurants on weekends. Thirty thousand people protested outside the Prague Castle at a demonstration organized by the Českomoravská konfederace odborových svazů (Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions) against the effects of the crisis on rank-and-file employees. Slavia won the Czech football league title again. Pavel Reisenauer won the 2008 Karel Havlíček Borovský award for journalism.
"I consider this a very successful trip - Kenya is a major producer of cut flowers, but because it hasn't negotiated a free-trade agreement with the EU, the flowers must be transported to the central headquarters in Amsterdam and cannot be traded freely. We have a chance to help that agreement but the fact remains that we won't manage it by the end of our presidency," parliamentary deputy Oldřich Vojíř (Civic Democrats, ODS) told the Mladá fronta Dnes newspaper, explaining why he and three colleagues from the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and the Communist Party (KSČM) spent a week in Kenya and Tanzania paid for by the state. Human-Rights Minister Michael Kocáb launched a campaign against child abuse. Stone saints returned to a repaired bridge in Žďár nad Sázavou, where they have stood for centuries. The government rejected the regulation of usury. Thirteen stalls burned down at the market near Rozvadov. The Sad zachránců dětí ("Orchard of Children's Saviors") was opened on Prague's Petřín hill as a "place to commemorate those who - often at the expense of their own lives - concealed Jewish children during World War II." Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez triumphed at the Prague Spring (Pražské jaro) festival.
"There are several Green parties. I believe it would be good to learn to distinguish them, as the authentic one is Buršík's," said former President Václav Havel at a press conference in which he endorsed the Green Party for the upcoming European elections. The energy monopoly ČEZ increased its quarterly earnings by 25 percent compared to the same period last year, to 19.5 billion crowns. Sixteen thousand people attended the traditional walk from Prague to Prčice. A nationwide campaign seeking to raise public awareness of the risk of cerebrovascular accidents was launched with the slogan "A stroke is fast. And you?" Nurseries and gardening suppliers reported higher sales. Cardinal Miloslav Vlk celebrated his 77th birthday. The management of Česká televize (Czech Television) acknowledged that it was running out of money and would have to resort to lay-offs. Leading global credit company Euler Hermes Čescob issued a report that the number of corporate bankruptcies in the Czech Republic would grow by a quarter compared to last year. The public swimming pool season opened. Moravian-Silesian climber Věslav Chrzaszcz from TJ Baník Karviná died attempting to descend Chomolungma aka Mount Everest. Statisticians calculated that in 2065 one third of the Czech Republic's inhabitants would be older than 65 - more than double the current amount.
"Older people already know that there are other more important values - personal relationships and things which can't be bought at the supermarket," sci-fi writer Ondřej Neff said after the study was released, explaining why he believes society's bent on consumption will diminish along with the aging of the population in the Czech Republic. Prada came to Pařížská avenue. "Rated X" returned to film posters following a decision by the Culture Ministry.