Current Affairs | All stories

Czech teachers and historians are outraged over a new Education Ministry plan, which significantly restricts the amount of time allocated to history education in Czech schools. Besides removing the subject from the basic curriculum, it furthermore proposes not to have it as an independent subject but rather merge it with civic education class. Dita Asiedu reports:

Two years ago a group of enthusiasts was drawn to a very special place in the centre of Prague, the long neglected area around the little church of St Catherine, just off Charles Square and in the area of the Charles University Hospital. To draw attention to the sorry state of the church they organized a tournament of the French version of bowls "petanque" and during that event they had an idea, which they are now hoping to realize. Zuzana Vesela reports.

The Czech Statistics Office has released a revised series of gross domestic product figures for the years 2000-2002. The revision puts the Czech Republic's troubled public finances in a more favourable light. On the other hand, it implies additional costs of EU membership for the Czech Republic.

An extraordinary book about the Holocaust has just been published in Prague. It's the story of a suitcase - a suitcase that belonged to a young Czech Jewish girl called Hana Bradyova. Hana was one of tens of thousands of Jewish Czechs who were sent to the ghetto in Terezin during the Nazi occupation. David Vaughan picks up the story of "Hana's Suitcase".

A recent study by the corruption watchdog Transparency International indicates that the Czech Republic is facing growing corruption in the public sector. Various forms of unethical business practices not only discourage foreign investors, but are seen as a serious problem by the European Union which the Czech Republic is to join in May 2004. This week the government met to debate the most effective course of action against a problem that has plagued Czech society for decades.

Education representatives from New Zealand and the Czech Republic met Monday with honored guest New Zealand Education Minister Trevor Mallard. The meeting was simply a platform in which dedicated advocates could share their different approaches to achieving the same goal: excellence in education. The organizers, the Prague Society for International Cooperation, is a non-partisan organization whose aim is to develop its already existing network and promote global responsibility in a myriad of areas. As the Czech Republic's education system faces

Regional hospitals which have been labouring under huge debts are to get a relief-aid package from the government. The Cabinet on Tuesday earmarked 2 billion crowns which is to help clear debts accumulated up until the end of 2002. The move will give some hospitals teetering on the edge of bankruptcy a new lease of life.

Following three years of negotiations on the biggest military purchase in the Czech Republic's history -a fleet of supersonic fighter jets to replace the Air Force's aging MiG 21s - the government is back to square one. Having cancelled earlier plans to buy 24 supersonic Gripen fighter jets from the British Swedish consortium BAE Systems and Saab due to a mounting budget deficit, the Cabinet has said it intends to purchase 14 used planes and invited nine countries to present their offers. There is one major difference - this time the purchase won't

The latest Czech police statistics shows that a quarter of all reported crimes could be qualified as domestic violence. Nine out of ten cases of violence against women are committed in the home. Fifty percent of murdered women are killed by their own partners after being physically or psychologically tortured.

In the world press the plight of independent journalists in Belarus has been largely ignored in recent years, but on Friday the former Czech president Vaclav Havel offered a symbolic gesture of support to one journalist struggling under the Lukashenko regime. Mr Havel received the Hanno R. Ellenbogen award for his contribution to democracy in Central Europe and decided to pass on the financial part of the award to Andrej Dynko, editor-in-chief of the independent Belarussian political and cultural weekly, Nasha Niva. It was an act of solidarity