A two-week diplomatic marathon on global climate change has kicked off in Copenhagen with delegates hailing from 192 countries.
Amidst increasingly alarming predictions and catastrophic visions, the eagerly anticipated U.N.-sponsored conference is expected to write history.
It should produce an agreement on curbing CO2 emissions as well as other steps to fight the rising temperatures of the Earth. The new agreement should replace the Kyoto Protocol which ends in 2012.
Among those hoping no agreement will be concluded in Copenhagen is Czech president Václav Klaus. This week he marked the plans to reduce CO2 emissions as unrealistic.
Klaus will not attend the conference but his book "Blue, not green planet" was published in the Danish language this week.
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SOCIALISTS IN PRAGUE. About 1000 socialists gathered in Prague to elect their new leader and talk about new strategy and visions.
"This congress was one of the most successful ones," former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. said at a press conference. And no wonder he considered it a success when he was re-elected the leader by a vast majority of the delegates.
The socialists have noted a decline in their membership, having lost a number of seats in this year's European Parliament elections. The aim of the two-day session was to come up with a new strategy to increase their standing across European countries.
The socialists also vowed to fight the climate change, preserve the state welfare and reform the financial markets. They would like to see tax paradises abolished.
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BIGGER AMOUNT THAN EXPECTED. On Monday the Czech government defined the maximum amount of psychedelic drugs, including plants. A person can now possess 40 hallucinogenic mushrooms and five cacti containing mescaline. A higher amount than that will send the drug user to prison.
In two weeks another government session should determine as well as finalize the guidelines for police and courts.
"Police have been acting responsibly and have gone after the drug dealers, not the users," journalist and well-known soft drug "advocate" Jiří X. Doležal told Czech Television.
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WEAR YOUR SKIN /AND NOTHING ELSE/. Two young ladies dressed only in "skin" were walking down the Charles Bridge as part of an animal rights campaign. Under the aegis of animal rights group PETA the scantily clad girls protested against wearing fur, never mind that fur has come out of fashion in the country. They should move eastwards, someone tried to advise.
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MAKING HISTORY IN PRAGUE? Two world leaders signing an agreement on nuclear disarmament in the Czech capital - those were the headlines in Czech media in the past week but the information has not been confirmed and Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev are unlikely to choose Prague for signing the treaty, which expired a few days ago.
The plan was that Obama would stop in Prague on his way to Stockholm where he is scheduled to collect the Nobel Peace Prize.
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GOAT FOR CHRISTMAS? WHY NOT. Should you be short of ideas what to buy for your beloved ones, you may find inspiration at www.skutecnydarek.cz (Real Gift).
One of the major foundations in the country, People in Need, has launched an e-shop for Christmas shoppers where clients can buy twenty chicken or a goat for a family in Congo, school stuff for Ethiopian kids and plenty of other things.
