Current Affairs | All stories

Just a month ago former First Lady Dagmar Havlova - wife of playwright and ex-president Vaclav Havel - admitted she was suffering serious health problems - with her thyroid gland and her heart - requiring quiet and rest. That clearly hasn't prevented the former First Lady from going ahead with plans to return to the stage: in the spring she will appear in a tragicomedy written by US playwright Israel Horovitz. It will be the first time theatre fans will be able to see the actress on stage since 1997.

Fascinating wartime documents have just been released in Britain that shed light on one of the dark moments of Czech history. On a June morning in 1942 people in the Nazi occupied Czech Lands woke up to a chilling radio announcement. In ice-cold tones a voice in German said that the village of Lidice not far from Prague had been wiped off the map, and all the men shot. This was in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's man in charge of the Czech lands, who was killed a few weeks before by Czech parachutists sent from London.

There are rising concerns being voiced in the media that Czech households are getting deeper and deeper into debt, and more and more of them are having trouble paying back their loans. Household debt was estimated at around 450 billion crowns last year, but take away mortgages and that's a lot of unsecured debt which more and more families are having problems paying back.

As customary on January 1st Czechs gathered around their TV sets to hear the president's New Year address to the nation. President Klaus's speech was your typical New Year's address: it was balanced, well-presented and upbeat - yet it has evoked plenty of criticism in the media.

Russia's decision to cut gas supplies to Ukraine this Sunday has caused concern in much of Central Europe. Most of the European Union's gas is supplied by Russia, much of it through pipelines that cross Ukraine. Poland, Hungary, and Austria have already registered drops in supplies. Slovakia says supplies are stable but pressure in the pipelines has decreased. The Czech Republic is one of few countries in Central Europe, which has not been affected so far. But for how long?

The very last day of 2005 brought unexpected tragedy to the High Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. Seven Czech climbers died in the early hours on Saturday when an avalanche buried their tents. Only one of the eight-member group managed to dig himself out of the snow and run for help. But it was too late and mountain rescue teams retrieved the dead bodies of six men and one woman in their 20s and 30s. The tragedy raised the death toll of Czech tourists in the High Tatras to twelve in the past year.

Ask a few Czechs where they are likely to be spending the end of the year and many will give you the same answer - at their country cottage. The tradition of country cottages stretches back over half a century and today it is hard to find a family which does not own one or have access to one through family and friends. Although sociologists predicted that the fall of communism would bring about a radical change, country cottages remain an important part in people's lives.

The Czech media are full of it - another billionaire wanted by the authorities has left the country. Earlier this year businessman Radovan Krejcir escaped from his villa while it was being searched by the police and is now enjoying the tropical climate of the Seychelles. Another entrepreneur, Viktor Kozeny, aka the Pirate of Prague has been evading prosecution for years in the Bahamas - another country which does not have an extradition treaty with the Czech Republic. The two have now been joined by another super-rich businessman, Tomas Pitr, who

Are you overweight? Do you smoke? Do you neglect medical check ups? The average Czech would give you a "yes" answer to all of the above and the health minister now intends to change that. In an effort to curb the health sector's staggering debt, he is advocating a healthier lifestyle and more personal responsibility for one's health.

Sport is one area in which the Czech Republic often punches above its weight, and some of the country's top sports stars - such as Pavel Nedved and Jan Zelezny - are truly world famous. Let's take a short look back at Czech successes this year, and a quick look ahead to 2006.