The Daily Dozen: 12 things to know about Czechia today

Farewell to Pope Benedict XVI|Prime Minister Petr Fiala attended the official funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, which took place yesterday morning St. Peter's Basilica, Czech Radio reports. Up to 70,000 believers as well as kings, presidents, a number of clergy also attended the funeral. Prague Archbishop Jan Graubner and Cardinal Dominik Duka held a funeral mass for the former at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague on Wednesday evening.

SIPO|The Czech Post announced today it registered suspicions of fraudulent misuse of the SIPO service by one company, ČTK reports. This could affect about 4,000 payers. The Czech Post recommends users of the SIPO service "to check the payment items on the payment document before making the payment." The SIPO system allows companies to collect money for the services provided based on a list of payers.

Littering fees|Czech companies are criticizing new fees they have to pay starting this month for people who litter in nature, Seznam Zprávy reports. Under the principle of "transferred responsibility," they have to pay CZK 532 per ton of waste, which means that municipalities will receive an additional CZK 56 million. According to a spokesperson for the Kofola beverage company, the fees for colored bottles are lower than for clear packaging, although the latter is the most recyclable.

Christmas trees|Authorities in Prague estimate that around 300,000 trees will be destroyed this year in the Czech capital, ČTK reports. Radim Mana, a spokesman for Prague Services, said that people should not throw saplings directly into garbage bins, but instead put them next to publicly accessible dustbins or containers for sorted waste.

Scientific breakthrough|Scientists from Loschmidt Laboratories, RECETOX and the Faculty of Science at the Masaryk University in Brno made a momentous discovery published in the well-respected scientific journal Nature Catalysis. The breakthrough could enable scientists to "construct a living organism that behaves exactly as they want and need it to," Czech Radio quotes Martin Marek, one of the authors of the research, as saying.

Silver win|The Czech junior ice hockey team won silver at the Junior World Championship in Canada, after losing to the host nation in overtime in a final score of 3:2. Still, this was the best result for the Czech junior hockey team in 22 years, after winning back-to-back gold medals in 2000 and 2001, and a bronze medal in 2005. Read more in our story.

Snowless slopes|Unseasonably warm weather this season is forcing ski areas to close their slopes. In the Krkonoše Mountains, the largest mountain range in Czechia, about half the slopes of the Špindlerův Mlýn resort were forced to close, while a traditional cross-country marathon scheduled to take place in the Jizera Mountains was cancelled. Read more in our story.

New calendar|On Jan. 6, 1584, the validity of the Julian calendar ended in Bohemia, and the Gregorian calendar came into effect. This meant that Monday Jan. 6 was followed by Tuesday, Jan. 17. Read more about the differences between the two calendars, and their role in Christmas celebrations, in our article.

Quirky kangaroo|Czechia’s most successful football club, Sparta Praha, tweeted a GIF of a kangaroo pretending to play the guitar to welcome an Australian footballer to the club, a move that some deemed strange. Awer Mabil, who previously played for the earlier this week joined Sparta Praha, fresh after playing the Qatar FIFA World Cup. Read more in our story.