Current Affairs | All stories

One of the founding fathers of Czechoslovakia, Slovak astronomer and politician Milan Rastislav Stefanik was born on July 21st 1880 exactly 125 years ago. Stefanik first studied in Prague where he met his professor and future collaborator Tomas Garigue Masaryk. Later he moved to France and together with Masaryk and Edvard Benes endeavored to establish an independent Czechoslovak state. But today Stefanik is far less widely remembered than the other two.

Britain's Prince Edward was in Prague on Tuesday, on the second day of a two-day visit to the Czech Republic. At the capital's British Embassy the prince met a varied group of young Czech achievers, presenting them with special awards on behalf of his father, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Czech cyclist Ondrej Sosenka has set a new world one-hour cycling record, riding an amazing 49.7 km in 60 minutes. The previous record of 49,441 m was set by Britain's Chris Boardman five years ago.

In the wake of the London bombings, the Czech National Security Council has recommended tough new measures to deal with the potential threat of terrorist attacks, drawn up by Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan. Mr Bublan told reporters if the Czech authorities failed to act, the country could become what he described as a logistics base for terrorist operations.

For 15 years now Prague's prestigious Design Centrum has been recognising excellence in Czech design, presenting awards for innovation and skill. This year, for the first time, the student category has its own national prize.

During the summer season many towns around the Czech Republic compete for tourists by putting on all kinds of festivals. Some towns have arts festivals of various kinds, while others celebrate all kinds of Czech folk traditions. Food and drink are also common themes, with Trebic for instance holding an annual potato festival. But surely one of the most unusual events of its kind has to be the "festival cesneku", or garlic festival, held every year in the town of Buchlovice in south Moravia.

Maternity hospitals around the Czech Republic are bursting at the seams. The annual birth rate in the Czech Republic has been slowly increasing over the last five years, but recent weeks have seen an unusually high number of births.

Ever since the fall of communism the Czech health care system has been facing many problems as it undergoes a painful process of transformation. A number of health ministers have tried over the years to reform the system - but with little success. As part of her strategy to improve Czech health care, the current health minister, Milada Emmerova, is pushing for the introduction of medical record books for all patients. But many general practitioners are strongly opposed to the idea.

President Vaclav Klaus is in hot water again after controversial comments about multiculturalism and terrorism. Mr Klaus was quoted in a newspaper interview as saying that there was a link between the mass influx of foreign cultures and terrorist attacks on the West.

The renowned Czech spa town of Marianske Lazne, traditionally known as Marienbad, was on its feet on Monday morning, awaiting the arrival of a British Royal. Prince Edward, the Queen's youngest son, is paying his very first visit to the Czech Republic and he headed straight for Marianske Lazne.