Current Affairs | All stories

Czech Centres are to be found from New York to Moscow, promoting Czech culture and providing a focus for local Czech communities. Now - perhaps surprisingly - a Czech Centre is opening here in Prague, just metres from the city's Estates Theatre. Jan Bondy is the director of Czech Centres. I asked him why Prague needs one.

There has been yet another new development in the ongoing battle over rent control in the Czech Republic. Only a month after a law on the phasing out of rent control was finally passed, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the owners of apartment buildings can sue the Czech state over losses they have suffered due to rent regulation.

Each spring the Czech Republic's Design Centre - with offices in both in Prague and Brno - runs a prestigious competition in the Czech Republic, honouring excellence in Czech design. Products recognised in the past have included cutting-edge furniture and modern office systems. This year's winner was a little bit different.

In 2003, Prague Mayor Pavel Bem told International Olympic Committee members that his city would put forth its candidacy for a future summer Olympiad. Despite a wave of criticism, the city plans to submit its application in July 2007 to host either the 2016 or the 2020 summer games. And now Pavel Bem says that there may be a national referendum on the Olympic question.

It's less than two months before Czechs go to the polls in an eagerly anticipated parliamentary election. Those of you living in the Czech Republic may have noticed the faces of Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek or Civic Democratic leader Mirek Topolanek smiling down from billboards, but less noticeable are the two dozen or so smaller parties competing in the election.

The international Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) wants to take the Czech Republic to court. The centre, an NGO promoting and protecting the interests of people with mental health problems, hopes to challenge the use of caged beds in Czech psychiatric wards and institutions. Caged beds are in use in the Czech Republic to restrain patients with mental disabilities. Although their use has been banned in Czech hospitals, they continue to be common in residential homes that are battling with low staff numbers and a severe lack of funding.

The Czech Republic today is without a Children's hospice, but a multi-million dollar effort is now underway to change that. Since 1991 The Klicek foundation has sought to establish such a care center. They recently got a boost from some talented visitors.

As you may know, the two major sports in the Czech Republic are football and ice hockey. You also may be aware that Sparta and Slavia are the two biggest clubs in Prague in both of these sports. This past weekend, the clubs squared off in both sports, and Radio Prague's Yon Pulkrabek was there and now brings us this report.

Clean up work is underway in many parts of the country following a week of heavy flooding and individual municipalities have started assessing the degree of flood damage. The first overall estimate is 5 billion crowns/ over 200 million US dollars/, but much more will have to go into flood prevention measures around the country.

In February 2004, a group of Czech scientists set out for the freezing temperatures of James Ross Island in Antarctica with a view to establishing the first Czech Antarctic research centre there. 2 years on, and the unprecedented project has finally been completed, giving Czech scientists a chance to study the Antarctic climate and its effects on global weather systems from their own state of the art polar station.