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Lolita style, photo: Matt Watts, Wikipedia
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A driver draws his sword in heavy traffic, Lolita-style fashions come to Prague, and a millionaire turns up at the labour office for his monthly social welfare bonus. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarová.

An audit into the unemployment and social benefits issued by the Chomutov labour office has revealed that a millionaire was among those coming in for a monthly social welfare bonus. Inspectors from the town hall found that he had sold his house and had over a million crowns on his account which no longer rendered him eligible for support given to the needy. Inspectors had a lucky break last week – also coming upon a woman who claimed her deteriorating eyesight prevented her from getting any employment playing the fruit machines at a local casino.


Photo: YouTube
Prague taxi drivers are reputed to be a tough lot, but one of them got more than he bargained for last week when he got out of his car to have it out with the driver of a Mercedes who had stopped in the middle of the street and was holding up traffic. The Mercedes driver who was reportedly driving his pregnant wife to hospital blew his top and drew a sword from his car –brandishing it like a madman as he descended on the taxi driver. After a chase in the street –which someone filmed on their mobile and put on You Tube – the driver got into his car and drove off but, the taxi driver feeling his courage return, made the mistake of kicking the rear of the Mercedes as it rolled away. The crazed driver promptly turned it around came back out with the sword and smashed the taxi’s rear window. Apparently the attacker was a member of a historical fencing club.


Martin Dvořák,  photo: www.idnes.cz
After an accident in the metro last week showed that bystanders were unable to break the glass covering on one of the metro’s alarm buttons the head of city transport Martin Dvořák set about demonstrating how easy it was last week. He had several of the glass covers lined up and proceeded to break them with his keys, his mobile phone, a 50 crown coin and lastly with his bare hand – cutting himself on the broken glass in the process. Some officials are selfless in their pursuit of duty.


Photo: www.resortliving.cz
Czechs who want something special in their home can now get an avant-garde designer sofa by the late Czech-born British based architect Jan Kaplicky – who designed it for his own flat in London. The huge circular sofa with a glass table in its centre is reminiscent of the round, no-sharp angles style favored by Kaplicky who took inspiration from nature where he said sharp angles did not exist. A small Czech firm has won a tender to produce the sofa on order and is offering it in three basic colours – white –as Mr. Kaplicky had it made – black and grey. A more outrageous version in the colours of Kaplicky Future Systems designs studio –blue and pink – is also possible. The sofa will cost from 750,000 crowns to one million for special colour requests. Anyone interested can view the sofa at this year’s Designblok currently underway in Prague.


Lolita style,  photo: Matt Watts,  Wikipedia
Czech girls who are crazy about the Harajuku Lolita style fashion that emerged from Japan will no longer have to shop for fashion items abroad or try to make the stuff at home. Prague-based Japanese entrepreneur Tomio Okamura has just opened a Lolita fashion boutique in the Czech capital. Mr. Okamura, head of the Czech Association of Travel Agencies, made headlines sometime ago when he invested in a travel agency that brought people’s plush toys to Prague and is clearly open to new ideas. He says that thanks to Facebook he realized there was a gap on the market for the seven hundred or so fans of Lolita fashions –and made haste to fill it. Lolita fashion is a style of dress that originated in Japan and was inspired by the clothing of Victorian women and children. It often aims to imitate the look of Victorian porcelain dolls. Other influences include horror movies, the punk subculture and cartoon characters. The boutique reportedly offers dresses and accessories at a price young girls can afford.


Radek John,  photo: CTK
The suspicious-looking plastic devices that caused a security scare in Prague this week turned out to be a bungled add campaign for a mobile phone operator. The black boxes which were attached to Prague street lamps caused a panic and the police evacuated a number of Prague streets before calling in explosives experts to dismantle the suspicious looking objects. Adding to the chaos, Interior Minister Radek John who was on his way to the site of the suspected terrorist attack had an accident when his driver collided with a tram. The police eventually traced the boxes to two students who were working on the said ad campaign to make some spare cash. The mobile phone operator has apologized for the disturbance and distanced itself from the campaign – saying it was not what they ordered – and the two chastised students are now assisting the police in dismantling the 100 black boxes they put up.