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Years before becoming one of the worst mass murderers of all time, Adolf Hitler struggled to make ends meet as an artist. Paradoxically, while the exact whereabouts of the German dictator's remains are uncertain, there is a busy trade today in the paintings he made in the early 1900s, which nobody was interested in buying at the time. Recently a watercolor purported to be by Adolf Hitler went on the auction block on a Czech website.

Like the rest of Central Europe, we're having an unusually warm winter here in the Czech Republic. Some towns and cities have even posted record temperatures often reaching well above the ten degree Celsius mark. With snow scarce on the ground, travel agents say many Czechs who traditionally go to the mountains to ski are now buying holiday packages elsewhere. Naturally, many ski resorts are struggling to adapt to the situation. Dita Asiedu reports:

The Czech Cultural Center Houston has begun selling a new Czech family cookbook titled "Cooking with the Klimas", and if you were looking for inspiration in the kitchen this dual language book might be what you've been looking for. Written by a retired Czech-American physician with help from her husband and daughter, it was more than twenty years in the making. The result is a 500 page "tome" chock full of home recipes.

Although the Czech economy is booming, the government has surprisingly posted a large budget deficit of 93.7 billion crowns or roughly four and a half billion US dollars, which could have dire implications for the country's future development. With the Czech Republic mired in political stalemate, this news could not have come at a worse time.

It has long been custom in the Czech Republic for viewers to tune in on January 1st to watch the president's New Year's address and this year's speech was followed closely. After months of political deadlock following inconclusive elections in June, it was hardly surprising politics topped the president's list.

As we do every year, Radio Prague has issued a brand new series of QSL cards to be sent out to our listeners in exchange for their reception reports. Some of you probably received the special QSL card we issued last year for the 70th anniversary of Radio Prague, and many of you have the complete collections from recent years or going even further back.

Two road deaths, two stabbings, thirty-four fires, 273 injuries - Prague's Emergency Medical Service had its busiest night in five years on New Year's Eve. Though emergency services were called to a lot less cases in the rest of the country, the injuries caused by fireworks and the consumption of alcohol were dramatic. Dita Asiedu reports:

Thursday started off like any other day in the flight control tower at Prague's Ruzyne airport. But that routine calm ended just after 10 am, when controllers received two reports from the cockpit of a Russian Aeroflot plane on route from Moscow to Geneva. A passenger had suddenly fallen ill and the plane needed to land in Prague, the captain reported. Four minutes later a new report came in - the passenger was not ill but was attempting to hijack the plane. Dita Asiedu reports:

On Thursday Czech politicians added another chapter to the seemingly endless political saga on forming a government. The Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and the Greens signed an agreement on a centre right coalition. But is it really a step towards giving the country a stable leadership, or just another in a series of drawn-out maneuvers leading to early elections?

In early 2006, the Czech Republic completed construction on a state-of-the-art research centre on James Ross Island, Antarctica. The project has taken a full six years to reach fruition but now the polar station is finally set to open, in just a few days' time. On Tuesday a Czech team set out for a two-month stay on the island, where members will study the effects of global warming and more.