Last week 45/08

Summer Time ended. Ninety years passed since the founding of Czechoslovakia, and, in celebration of the anniversary, the country's largest military parade in the last 25 years took place in Prague. The first snow fell on Klínovec mountain. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek flew to Afghanistan in order to decorate Czech soldiers who are fighting against al-Qaida and the Taliban. The price of flats dropped. The media reported that, by handing out an unconditional loan of 25 billion dollars, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had saved Hungary, which was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy brought on by the current global financial crisis. „In my opinion, the current economic crisis is a new kind of conspiracy. It started in September, only seven years after the first conspiratorial fabrication about the airplane attacks on the USA, by which America hoped to usurp the global political power. This time, the aim is to take over the property and capital of the Arabs, and to create a new climate of economic plundering in the wake of the political plundering. Such is the Western mentality - it excels at reaping what others have sown and at seizing anything that they have no right to take…“ said Dr. Mustafa Al-Fiqqi, head of the Egyptian parliamentary foreign liaison committee, as quoted by news agencies. The Chamber of Deputies began debating the intergovernmental treaty between the Czech Republic and the United States concerning the establishment of a US military radar base in the Brdy hills. Count Radslav Kinský was buried in Žďár. Precious metal collectors stole a piece of security equipment cable on the Hodonín railway line and thereby prevented trains between Břeclav and Přerov from running all day long. The Baťova nemocnice (Tomáš Báťa Hospital) in Zlín commenced work on its new cancer center. The City of Prague had the police disband a gathering of proponents of Dělnická strana, an extremist political party, on Prague's Wenceslas Square because of their racist and hateful speeches. „I'd like to end my life by, for example, killing skinheads in a scuffle while defending the Roma so they would know that others stand behind them,“ František Lízna, a Jesuit priest and former dissident who walked all the way to Cherson, Ukraine on a pilgrimage despite having cancer, told reporters. The price of petroleum fell. Switzerland announced that its authorities were prepared to cancel border checks for citizens from the Schengen Zone. The Czech currency shot up unexpectedly to 24 crowns to the euro.

An unknown perpetrator spray-painted the words „Stop islámů“ („Stop Islam“) on the doors of the mosque in Brno and the police treated the incident as a case of graffiting. „We're looking for him. We estimate that he is quite a dangerous man,“ a spokesman for the Zlín police told journalists after the local traffic officers failed to stop the driver of a metallic green Audi bearing a license plate beginning with 1Z3 who, during the subsequent pursuit, threw metal spikes on the road, which forced the police car to stop the chase and almost killed the crew inside. The Jihlava international documentary film festival ended in the usual phenomenal success. The price of electricity went up. The government granted political asylum to 23 refugees from Burma transported to Prague by plane from Malaysia. The Czech Republic worked its way up to 15th place on the World Wildlife Fund's list of countries whose inhabitants' lifestyles burden the planet's natural resources most. An unidentified arsonist set fire to a bale of hay and straw in the village of Vílanec. Škoda Auto stopped production for nine days because of a lack of demand for its products. A special exhibition, Tutanchamon – jeho hrob a poklady (Tutenkhamun - His Tomb and His Treasures), opened in Brno. The wheelchair-riders association protested against a České dráhy (Czech Railways) order making it impossible for groups of passengers confined to wheelchairs to buy tickets without a 600-crown surcharge for „delaying the train at the station.“ „This uninteresting minority is not, in my opinion, the future of this nation; or, it is only a very singular one,“ Český rozhlas (Czech public radio) programming director Richard Medek proclaimed, referring to listeners of Radio Wave, which broadcasts alternative, non-commercial music for youth under the heading of public radio. In an effort to determine areas prone to potential leaks before winter, South Moravia's natural gas distributor Jihomoravské plynárny tripled the strength of the unpleasant-smelling agent in its supply for the next month. The Czech food inspectorate warned the public not to buy White Rabbit-brand candy from China, as it is poisonous.