Current Affairs | All stories

The great change of Czech society which came with the fall of the communist regime has also had a great impact on individual and family life. Fifteen years after the Velvet Revolution the Czech family is facing several problems, such as a low birth rate and a high number of divorces. What are the causes? What is the government's position?

The UN has declared human trafficking the third most lucrative crime, after drug smuggling and arms trafficking globally. An international conference in Prague this week focused on the increasing problem of human trafficking. An estimated 300,000 people are trafficked in the EU annually.

The music scene in Prague is very diverse and has a lot to offer. Fahima Khail discovered shamanic music and talked to Prague´s ´Shamanic Orchestra´, who have just launched a new CD this week, about their music and the alternative scene in the Czech Republic.

The percentage of people living in high rise flats in former Eastern Bloc countries such as the Czech Republic is twice as high as in the 15 "old" European Union states. Indeed a full 40 percent of Czechs live in prefabricated flats, known as panelaks, many of which are in bad repair and in need of major investment. The future of high rise flats was the theme of a Prague meeting of EU housing ministers, hosted by the Czech Republic's regional development minister, Jiri Paroubek. He spoke to me at the close of the conference on Tuesday.

Doctors depend on antibiotics to treat illnesses caused by bacteria, ranging from pneumonia to meningitis. In recent years the effectiveness of many antibiotics has begun to wane, the legacy of decades of unnecessary overuse in both human medicine and agriculture. The Czech Republic is one of the countries which are contributing to this dangerous trend.

Czech farmers brought their complaints to the capital on Tuesday, protesting outside a shopping mall in Prague's Smichov district. They were campaigning for the protection of Czech food products in the face of foreign imports. Rosie Johnston was there.

Like many cities, Prague has more than its fair share of graffiti. It's certainly one of the more visible changes in the appearance of the Czech capital since the fall of communism. Many people are appalled by the increase in graffiti around Prague, which can often be seen defacing the beautiful facades of the city's historical buildings. It is hardly surprising therefore that tough legislation introduced a few years ago, which made it possible to send graffiti artists to prison won widespread support here. Despite the tougher laws, however, graffiti

Talk is afoot of the Prague Metro system expanding. Siemens is currently supplying Prague metro with its latest installment of trains. With Skoda Holdings also interested in making trains for the Prague metro, Siemens is going to have to battle for the next commission. Metro passengers praise the quality of the new trains, but complain that their interiors are ill designed and uncomfortable. Rosie Johnston went to see how they were made.

Just about every tram and trolleybus now operating in the Czech Republic was built by a company now owned by the transport engineering company Skoda Holding. But while the Plzen-based company is the undisputed master of the above ground rails, having bought out or partnered with the country's leading bus and railroad manufacturing companies, it has been less successful on its home turf underground, which has been the domain of the German engineering group Siemens.

"Morena" was taken out to the river, lit on fire and thrown into the Botic river so that winter would leave and spring could finally come. Morena is a scarecrow who represents old woman winter. The ancient custom of chasing out winter and welcoming spring dates back to Pagan times was celebrated at Prague's Toulcuv Dvur this weekend.