Current Affairs | All stories

Michal Kraus, the longest serving deputy in the Czech lower house, has resigned. The Social Democrat MP had come under fire from the press and the opposition, over allegations he had been involved in a dubious business deal in Ghana. But Mr Kraus proclaimed his innocence to the end, saying he was stepping down for the good of his party ahead of elections in June.

The Volkswagen Group, that owns the Czech carmaker Skoda, last week announced its decision to enter the booming Russian car market. The plan is to start assembling the Skoda Octavia in kit form. To avoid Russia's high duties on car imports, Skoda will make the cars in the Czech Republic, paint them, take them apart and then have them reassembled in Russia. Skoda says that this should all be up and running by the beginning of 2008. David Vaughan spoke to our auto-industry expert Lyle Frink to find out more.

On a tour of neighbouring Visegrad countries, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz made a one-day working visit to Prague on Tuesday. At a time when Czech-Polish relations are extremely good, Prime Ministers Marcinkiewicz and Jiri Paroubek devoted much of their time to the question of alternate energy resources for central Europe.

Every year in the middle of January we remember Jan Palach. On 16th January 1969, five months after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he dowsed himself with petrol and set himself alight on Prague's Wenceslas Square. In a letter he wrote that he wanted to awaken his fellow citizens from apathy and resignation following the invasion. Three days later he died, and his funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, a demonstration for freedom and democracy that the invasion had crushed. The 20-year old from the grey little town of Vsetaty

Unusually high levels of smog forced many residents in industrial regions and bigger towns and cities to stay indoors for several days last week. In the Moravian town of Karvina, for example, dust levels were ten times higher than usual. The elderly, children, and people with asthma or other health problems had breathing difficulties. Many who could, escaped to the country.

The 2005 film adaptation of C.S. Lewis's literary classic, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is out now in the Czech Republic. Czech viewers will instantly recognise that some scenes were shot in the nature reserve of Cesky raj or Czech Paradise. The unmistakable stunning sandstone formations of Cesky raj and other natural beauties of the Czech Republic are not the only attractions for foreign filmmakers.

Some time ago Helena Ferencikova, a Romany woman, claimed she had been forced to undergo sterilization. Her case set off many more complaints from Romany mothers who said they'd received similar treatment. Many of them wrote to the Ombudsman Otakar Motejl for help and several have since taken their case to court.

The Jewish Museum in Prague is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, with a year-long programme of concerts, theatre performances and exhibitions. The events will celebrate the centuries of Jewish life in the Czech Lands, and the substantial cultural contribution of the Jewish community, a community which was decimated by the Holocaust. Rob Cameron spoke to Leo Pavlat, director of the Jewish Museum.

A final decision is expected to be announced shortly on a huge foreign investment to the Czech Republic. A Czech delegation is on its way back from South Korea, where it has been finalizing details on plans for a major Hyundai assembly plant with an annual capacity of 300,000 cars. The Korean car-maker seems almost certain to choose this country, and several sites in the eastern part of the Czech Republic have been prepared. David Vaughan spoke to auto journalist Lyle Frink about the project and asked him what's at stake.

The Czech Republic has one of the worst road death records in Europe, but this week there was some positive news, with the police announcing the number of road deaths in 2005 was 7 percent less than the previous year. In all 1,127 people died on Czech roads last year, the lowest number for a decade and a half. I discussed this positive development with Robert Stastny, head of the Ministry of Transport's road safety department.