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The barrels of carp have arrived, the fish-monger's knife is busy, and the streets of Prague are slippery with fish scales and blood. No, it's not a horror film, merely the arrival of Czech Christmas. It's just a few days to Christmas Eve, and today we bring you the last of our Radio Prague Christmas memories. First up is 's account of his most unforgettable Christmas, followed by talking about a typical Czech Christmas in Canada:

A Reconciliation Fund, from which compensation is to be paid to people sent to Austria as forced labourers during WWII, has been officially launched in Vienna. There are some 15 thousand Czech citizens eligible for compensation, which they are to start receiving as of February next year. has the details:

On Wednesday, the main evening news show of the public Czech TV Ceska televize broadcast silence for two minutes. A message appeared on TV screens with a proclamation by Czech TV employees, saying that by naming Jiri Hodac to the director's post the Czech Television supervisory board had "directly threatened the independence and functioning of public television". More from :

Well Christmas draws nearer every day - and this week the city of Plzen in West Bohemia witnessed a rather unusual event - an 'Italian Christmas.' Klara Polednova is a member of the Friends of Italy Society, and Radio Prague's Plzen correspondent caught up with her at Tuesday's festivities to find out what it was all about.

The sacking of the general director of Czech public television last week, and the search for his replacement, has become a broader issue than just finding the right man for a sensitive job. President Havel has said he does not really understand the reason why Dusan Chmelicek was sacked. A strong lobby within Czech Television itself says the decision was unprofessional - after just ten months in the job, Mr. Chmelicek couldn't possibly prove that he was capable of handling the job. Many believe the issue is purely political. The supervisory body

It's not easy being a doctor in the Czech Republic. This is a claim frequently made by many Czech physicians. As of the beginning of 2001, health insurance companies will probably end up paying more for medical care. This will apparently leave doctors, especially ones with private practises, fearing that they will not be paid for their work in time, and they therefore claim patients will have to pay in cash. More from :

A court of appeal in the North Moravian town of Karvina increased the sentences on Tuesday of two far-right skinheads involved in the death in 1998 of a local Roma man. The man, Milan Lacko, died after he was set upon by a group of skinheads and run over as he was left lying in a road. But as reports, the latest verdict is still far from satisfaction for his family.

And now on a sad note - it was announced in Prague last night that the Director of the Prague Spring International Music Festival, Oleg Podgorny, passed away. In the following report, pays tribute to his life and work.

On Monday, Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sought to allay fears in his country over a possible influx of cheap labour from East European countries following EU expansion. Chancellor Schroeder announced in a speech in the Bavarian town of Weiden, a border town where such fears abound, that Germany would call for a seven-year transition period following accession, in which unskilled labourers from new member countries would not have freedom of movement, as guaranteed by the Schengen Treaty, The German Chancellor said the measure could be