Russian gas supplies to the Czech Republic and Turkey dropped on Sunday, the latest victims of a deepening row between Russia and Ukraine over debts and pricing.
Russian natural gas supplies fell by five percent to the Czech Republic as a result of the stand-off, which began when Russia cut off the gas to Ukraine on New Year's day. The two sides blame each other for the dispute.
"It is the first signal of the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the Czech Republic," said a spokesman for gas importer RWE Transgas.
European energy firms, which received about a fifth of their gas via pipelines through Ukraine, said they had enough gas stockpiled to maintain supplies for several days.
The New Year’s Eve is celebrated all over the world pretty much in the same way; getting pissed, wasted or just alcoholically amused. You might be the king of your hood and have the ability to drink your weight without getting sick or in a coma but in the next day you may feel as if you were ran over by a train. So we are offering you some solutions to ease that state, as well as an explanation on how they can help to cure the enemy of all party animals, the hangover.
Here is a semi-complete list of what is going on this Silvestr/New Year's eve. Be assured that anything listed here is a New Year's/Silvestr party that should kick your ass if you bend over and let it have access to a full boot to your butt!
Root is a Czech black metal legend founded by Big Boss and Blackie. Root was one of the original pre-second-wave black metal bands, following in the footsteps of Bathory and Venom, while taking the genre in a more refined, less savage direction. Their style has since progressed towards a more epic, dark heavy metal sound with a clean-sung vocal approach, but their music can still be recognized as black metal at its core due to the unchanged ideology of the band. After the album Madness of the Graves (2003), Blackie left Root to concentrate on his band Cales. Blackie also plays in the band Entrails, a melodic black metal band.
maXimal residents and founders are Rhys Davies and Sly Antro. Sly Antro (UK-CZ) is a regular on the Prague scene with sets at Mecca, Roxy, Duplex and more. Sly plays an upfront mix of uplifting house and electro supplying energy never seen on a dance floor before. With past and present residencies in the UK, Majorca, Ibiza and Ayia Napa, Sly truly is becoming a star on an international level. Rhys Davies (UK-CZ) delivers a diverse accumulation of underground, cutting edge sounds accented with a mixture of mainstream tracks to give the ultimate maXimal experience providing something for all clubbers. Rhys has played clubs across the UK as well as featuring in numerous Prague venues.
Coming soon to Prague; fresh dissent over the Lisbon Treaty designed to streamline the working of the European Union and make it more coherent as a Union. The Czech Republic, which takes up the six-month rotating EU presidency on January 1, 2009, is the only of the 27 EU states not to have taken a position on the Lisbon treaty as yet.
In order for the Lisbon treaty to be ratified, it must be agreed to by all member states. Of the 27 member states, Ireland was the only country to hold a referendum - their county's constitution meant it had to be put to public referendum in addition to parliamentary vote - and Ireland was thus the only nation to reject ratification of the treaty outright.
But this is not to say that everyone else is in agreement. Foreign critics of the Lisbon treaty are to meet at the Czech Senate this January to present a counterweight argument to the MEP's that came to Prague in December 2008. The seminar is to focus on the position of democracy in the EU before and after a possible ratification of the Lisbon treaty, and also on the legitimacy of the treaty's ratification after the Irish referendum's "no" vote last June – introduction of the treaty in 2009 must be put on hold at least until Ireland changes its vote, whenever that may be.
The European Union faces one of the oddest baton changes in its history next week. France, in the inexhaustible shape of Nicolas Sarkozy, will hand over the presidency of the EU to an inexperienced Czech government split between a Euro-negative President and a Euro-positive Prime Minister.
Russian gas supplies to the Czech Republic and Turkey dropped on Sunday, the latest victims of a deepening row between Russia and Ukraine over debts and pricing.
intro by Kate Pinto 
Nosferatu New Year's Eve 2008: 
New Year's Colours of Music - 
Hyperactive French leader, who took command during series of crises, passes baton to weak and divided Prague