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Across Europe, Wednesday was a day of mourning for the victims of the tsunami disaster in south-east Asia. As sirens sounded across the country, Czechs observed three minutes of silence as a mark of respect for the dead. A wave of public sympathy for the plight of the afflicted region has resulted in the biggest public collection since the devastating floods of 2002 which left thousands of people in central Europe homeless.

With the New Year thousands of Czechs found themselves having to dig deeper into their pockets. Under a new health ministry regulation, they have to pay up to twenty times more for many prescription drugs, ranging from blood pressure regulators to anti-depressants. In order to cover a wider range of drugs, health insurance companies have reduced their subsidies on others, forcing Czechs dependent on them either to pay more or settle for less.

As every year after the Christmas and New Year's holidays, this Monday most of the retailers in the Czech Republic opened their stores with huge seasonal sales. But this time the discounts were much higher than in previous years. The general shopping binge was so big that it even caused long queues and traffic jams in several Czech cities.

Staked out by paparazzi, the Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova, who was seriously injured when deadly tsunamis struck southeast Asia last month — and whose boyfriend is among those still missing — has agreed to be photographed from her hospital bed in Thailand to raise money for a children's charity.

Over a week after the Indian Ocean disaster, 23 Czechs are still missing with one confirmed dead and seven more unlikely to have survived. Most of the survivors who have returned to the Czech Republic have been reunited with their families, though three people have been put in quarantine at Prague's Bulovka hospital.

Like elsewhere in the world, end of year celebrations in the Czech Republic passed under the cloud of the tsunami disaster, as radio and TV channels brought news of the latest developments. On Sunday a Czech military plane brought back the body of the first Czech casualty, a twenty four year old woman, and a group of survivors whose holiday in Asia turned into a nightmare.

It is customary throughout much of the world for heads of state or government to deliver a live New Year's Day address, to look back at the good and bad of the previous year and inspire the nation to work for a brighter future, even as many citizens are nursing hangovers from the previous night's celebrations. We take a look at the New Year's Day address of Czech president Vaclav Klaus.

Over 37 million crowns, or over 1.2 million euros, that's how much Czechs have raised so far in individual donations to help the stricken countries in South Asia. Most of the money has been gathered on the accounts of various aid agencies. Also, the Czech passion for sending SMS text messages from their mobile phones has been used for a good purpose.

As the full scale of the Indian Ocean disaster unfolds, there is still no information about the whereabouts of over 150 Czechs. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic is dispatching humanitarian aid to the region and Czech charities have started public collections.

In this review of the year in sport we take a brief look back at how Czech sportsmen and women fared over the last year. We start with the first major event of the year, the World Ice Hockey Championships, which were held in Prague and Ostrava, attracting over half a million spectators.