Let's have a belt to brace ourselves first:
"At least four more people have died in the Czech Republic after drinking bootleg alcohol tainted with toxic methanol, bringing the death toll to seven in the worst such poisoning in three decades, officials said on Tuesday."
All set!
"Iraq to buy Czech military planes for $1 billion" Associated Press, October 13, 2012
PRAGUE — Iraq has agreed to buy 28 Czech-made military airplanes in a deal worth $1 billion, part of a broader effort by Baghdad to rebuild military capabilities destroyed during the US-led invasion of the country, officials said Friday.
Iraq has only a few planes and is unable to defend its air space. The government has bought billions of dollars in tanks, fighter jets, ships, and other weapons from the United States in recent years, but is looking to forge military ties with other allies and nations, including Russia.
‘‘We want to boost the ties with our old friends,’’ Saad al-Dulaimi, Iraq’s defense minister, said in a statement....
And now you know why the Sunnis in Iraq have been activated by Saudi Arabia. Remember them saying long ago they would step in if the U.S. stepped out? And here we are, over a year later.
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And the politics over there?
"2 candidates face presidential runoff
PRAGUE — A former leftist prime minister and the Czech Republic’s conservative foreign minister will face each other in a presidential runoff this month after finishing Saturday as the top two candidates. Former Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg will compete for the post Jan. 25-26."
"Ex-prime minister elected new Czech president, January 27, 2013
PRAGUE — A former left-leaning prime minister staged a big return to power Saturday by winning the Czech Republic’s first directly elected presidential vote. With all ballots counted, Milos Zeman won 54.8 percent of the vote for the largely ceremonial post, the Czech Statistics Office said. His opponent, conservative Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, had 45.2 percent (AP)."
And the guy he is replacing?
"Czech president facing treason charges" by Karel Janicek | Associated Press, March 05, 2013
PRAGUE — The Czech Republic’s conservative President Vaclav Klaus is facing high treason charges over his amnesty for thousands of inmates and others, an unprecedented case that is tainting his final days in the post after a rocky decade.
Lawmakers in Parliament’s upper house, which is dominated by the left-wing opposition, voted Monday to file charges at the Constitutional Court.
Marking the country’s 20th anniversary of independence on Jan. 1, Klaus used a traditional tool of Czech presidents and ordered the release of more than 6,000 inmates serving short terms. His amnesty also halted court proceedings in several high-profile fraud cases on the grounds that he wanted to stop ‘‘endless criminal proceedings.’’ That move infuriated many Czechs who are fed up with widespread corruption.
Just like the rest of us.
Klaus had already polarized the public during his two terms in the normally ceremonial post with his strident views questioning the EU, gay rights, and global warming, but frustration with him has since mushroomed.
About 73,000 Czechs have signed a petition backing the charges, while Klaus’s portrait has been torn down in schools and offices across the country.
The anger his marred his legacy as a finance minister and prime minister who oversaw the Czech Republic’s tricky, post-communist transition to free markets in the 1990s....
The Constitutional Court is expected to deal with the case quickly but it is still likely to be weeks before a verdict. The worst punishment Klaus faces is the loss of the presidential job, which ends Thursday anyway, and he would be forbidden from running again.
If found guilty, he would also lose about $5,000 a month from a state pension for former presidents, including a contribution to pay for his office.
Klaus’s opponents said their goal was not to punish him but to clarify rules for the future. ‘‘We want to know how far a president can go,’’ said Senator Miroslav Antl, one of those behind the charges....
Prime Minister Petr Necas, chairman of the conservative Civic Democratic Party founded by Klaus, condemned the move, calling it ‘‘an attack on our country’s reputation.’’
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"Powerful blast injures at least 35 in Prague" Associated Press, April 30, 2013
PRAGUE — A powerful blast believed to be a gas explosion ripped open an office building in the center of Prague on Monday, injuring at least 35 people and sending shock waves through the Old Town tourist district.
The blast shattered windows in the scenic area of charming streets and postcard-pretty buildings, sending glass flying. Authorities closed a wide area around the site and some tourists were stranded on street corners with baggage-loaded trolleys, unable to get into their hotels.
Authorities said two or three people were still believed to be missing, but sniffer dogs searching the rubble had not indicated that anyone was buried and the prime minister said it appeared no one had died.
An AP cameraman filming at the time of the blast said the physical impact could be felt on the famed 15th-century Charles Bridge over the Vltava River, which was packed with tourists.
The explosion occurred on Divadelni Street at about 10 a.m., in one of a row of several-story-tall brick buildings dating back about a century. The street was covered with rubble and police evacuated people from nearby buildings.
‘‘It’s really immense and huge, almost like after an air assault or a bomb explosion,’’ Prime Minister Petr Necas said after visiting the scene. ‘‘So, if we really prove what we think right now, which is that nobody died, it was very lucky.’’
Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda ruled out a terrorist attack, saying the blast was a gas explosion.
Prague is a major tourist capital, visited every year by legions of students, backpackers, and others from around the world. In 2012, a total of 5.4 million people visited, with a large majority from outside the country — many from Germany, Russia and the United States.
Officials had estimated that up to 40 were injured, but Zdenek Schwarz, head of rescue service in Prague, later narrowed that down to 35.
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