Last week 32/2006

Newspapers reported that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro had become seriously ill and celebrations erupted around the world at Cuba's possible impending freedom; the European Union joined China and Venezuela in wishing „President Castro and Cuban democracy a quick recovery“ through its spokesperson Pietro Petrucci. The scorching heat subsided. Hydrometeorologists announced that local rivers are drying up and potable Czech underground water reserves have fallen significantly and permanently as a consequence of climatic changes. "It wouldn't be off the mark," replied Water Management Research Institute expert Ladislav Kašpárek to Mladá fronta Dnes's question „Do we have to start comparing the price of water with the price of gold?“ Dragon boats raced on the lake near Ostrožská Nová Ves. One-hundred-and-eighty students from 33 countries came to Brno to revive their knowledge of Czech at the Summer School of Slavic Studies. The new medical decree became valid. A state prosecutor recommended a 12-year sentence for former Komerční banka director Jiřina Kaplanová, who handed out several billion crowns in unsecured and never-repaid loans while heading the bank. "It delighted me that he was impressed by my nudes from when I was pregnant – and I was proud to be standing next to the prime minister," said model Sára Saudková, describing to reporters how she felt about Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek visiting the opening of her ex-boyfriend and photographer Jan Saudek's exhibition. Zoologists released 6 Ural owls into the Šumava wilderness. The situation on Czech roads became considerably safer, the number of deaths in July was the lowest it has been in 37 years, and Civic Democratic Senator Jaroslav Kubera proclaimed it was boring and that the stringent point system responsible for it must be changed as soon as possible. Eight-thousand trout died in the Opava stream near Krnov due to sewage leaks from septic tanks.

The Eurotunnel connecting Europe's railways between the two banks of the English Channel went bankrupt. A study by the AV ČR Sociological Institute revealed that Czech women spend an average of 14 hours a day working at their jobs and at home, and have just two hours of free time; their male counterparts have one hour more free time per day. "It's clear that the man received the mortal wounds in the presence of both police officers. But whether these mortal blows were caused by the two defendants together or just one of them has not been proven," said Plzeň judge Luboš Patzenhauer, explaining why he acquitted two former police officers who had stopped a drunken driver in 1994 and when the control was over the man had a ruptured spleen and intestines, from which he died shortly afterwards. The electricity monopoly ČEZ informed consumers that the price of electricity would rise next year by at least six percent. The American company Trinity Industries sold Vagonka Studénka to a Luxembourg-based company. The budget tumbled into a deficit larger (by 10.5 billion crowns) than last year's . National Library restorers returned from a two-month stay in Kurdistan, Iraq, where they salvaged old prints damaged some time ago by a fire that dictator Sadam Hussain had set before his demise in an attempt to destroy documents incriminating his government that were stored in the university building. "You can find perfect services almost everywhere these days, but Africa is Africa – it's more than half the world away, but I felt at home here," pronounced musician Ondřej Hejma upon returning from his golf holiday in Cape Town. In light of a looming epidemic, mass vaccinations against the mumps began in Moravia. Czech maternity hospitals began rejecting future mothers due to a lack of beds. A Czech smuggler and five of his Vietnamese clients, i.e. refugees, died in Brandenburg during a car chase involving German police. To protest the region's refusal to pay subsidies for bus lines twice as unprofitable as last year, more than 2,000 buses from a North Bohemian transport company did not set off on their routes. The National Gallery exhibited works by Pavel Brázda. During the trial with the „Berdych gang“ - a group of criminals steered by high-ranking police officers - a secret witness testified that police officer Josef Opava had ordered the murder of a woman by the gang's killers, which was carried out in the winter of 2002 and disguised as a car accident. The annual summer theatre festival Kratochvílení began at the South Bohemian chateau Kratochvíl. Jan Hřebejk began shooting his latest film, Medvídek (Teddy Bear).