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It’s been a long day at Prague Castle. After hours of deadlock, Czech lawmakers finally started voting on who should be the country’s next president. The Czech Republic’s 200 deputies and 81 senators spent over ten hours trying to agree on how the elections should be conducted. After deciding that it was to be by public vote, and not secret ballot, at around 8pm on Friday evening, voting for the country’s next president got underway. Two rounds of voting on Friday night failed to produce a president, with neither candidate clinching a sufficient

We’ve heard a lot over the last couple of days about the presidential candidates Jan Svejnar and Vaclav Klaus, but you know what they say - behind every great man, there’s a great woman. Here is a profile of the lives and achievements of the Czech Republic’s two current candidates for the first-lady post.

We’ve been talking all week about Friday’s presidential election, when Czech American economist Jan Švejnar will challenge incumbent Václav Klaus for the post. But with hours to go until MPs and senators gather at Prague Castle, a dispute over how to elect the president is threatening to overshadow the entire process, with some talking of a looming constitutional crisis.

Twenty years after the fall of communism Czechs are on the verge of being included on a list of countries in the US visa-waiver programme. It allows tourists and businesspeople from abroad to travel visa-free to the US. Although the move was expected, a US senior official in Prague on Wednesday, confirmed it could come sooner: as early as this autumn. A bilateral agreement still needs to be signed, as well as a new electronic system implemented, before the change takes place, but essentially there is nothing that should now prevent the move from

Fox hunting in the Czech Republic may not come with all of the red coats and horses that you might expect to see elsewhere – often it’s more a case of one man and his dog in the woods. But here, just like in other countries, it is a controversial issue nonetheless. On Tuesday, the Czech parliament approved a law which allows hunters to train their dogs through direct contact with foxes. Previously, foxes and dogs had to be kept apart by a cage during training, so that neither suffered injury. Animal rights groups are dismayed by the move.

Friends of Mike Murray, an American citizen who was stabbed to death in Prague last week, have been petitioning against the release of the suspect – a 27-year-old police officer - from custody. After the suspect was charged with murder on Thursday, a court in Prague released him, pending investigation, claiming it had found no reason why the suspect should await trial behind bars.

Céčka, tuzex and trvalá – for those growing up in the communist Czechoslovakia these were a part of daily life. As of tomorrow, you can find out more about those trends in a new series called Retro, produced by the Czech Television. Why are Czechs suddenly so interested in looking back at their recent past? Ruth Fraňková went to ask Jan Rozkošný, the producer of the new show.

The Czech Republic’s freedom of speech and assembly laws have been tested to the full in recent months by a small but determined group of neo-Nazis. For the second time this year, the city of Plzeň in West Bohemia is bracing itself for a march by far-right radicals, and politicians are wondering whether it might not be time to prune the country’s legislation to prevent such marches from going ahead.

The Czech presidential election is just days away and there’s no question that tensions are on the rise between those backing incumbent Václav Klaus and those backing his challenger, Jan Švejnar. In the latest twist in the run-up, Jan Švejnar has made new claims he has secured votes from some Civic Democrat lawmakers – traditionally loyal to Mr Klaus. The claims have fuelled speculation over both men’s chances – including the possibility of a Klaus upset.

For years, people living in the close vicinity of the “magistrála”, the main artery cutting through the Prague city centre, have been fighting with City Hall to reduce excessive rates of noise and air pollution. This month, a Prague Court issued a breakthrough ruling, ordering the city council to reduce the levels within a year. Alžbeta Rejchertová is the chairwoman of the civic association which filed the complaint. I met her right in front of her house to find out what it is like to live right next to the artery.