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The first Czech soldier has died in action in what the United States calls the war on terror. He was the victim of a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan on Monday; two other Czech soldiers were injured, one of them seriously.

Many capital cities are famed for their café culture, and Prague is no exception. At the turn of the twentieth century, writers like Karel Čapek and Franz Kafka would meet with artists, academics and politicians in the Czech capital’s cafes to expound their ideas over a cup of coffee - and maybe the smallest snifter of absinthe. Now a new exhibition called ‘Prague’s Coffeehouses and their World’ takes a look at the golden age of the city’s cafes, and attempts to recreate some of the magic such coffeehouses were said to have had at the turn of the

Stock markets around the world recorded heavy losses on Monday in reaction to the emergency bailout of US investment bank Bear Stearns. The Prague Stock Exchange was no exception, with the headline PX index dropping by almost 2.5 percent. Analysts said investors were responding to the unexpected collapse of the leading U.S. investment bank and the problems of the U.S. financial market in general. The Prague exchange saw something of a recovery on Tuesday, but the markets are still jittery. Jiří Staník is a senior analyst at the Prague-based investment

The Interior Ministry has come up with a new bill on citizenship which will make it easier for former Czech nationals to have their Czech citizenship returned. If it goes through, former Czech citizens who were stripped of their citizenship by the communist authorities will be able to have double nationality.

The violent suppression of freedom protests in Lhasa by the Chinese military over the weekend sparked a show of international solidarity with Tibet, with street protests in many world cities and governments appealing for restraint. In the Czech Republic, a country which overthrew communist rule less than two decades ago, the violence in Tibet has touched on a raw nerve.

More and more people are checking into the Czech Republic’s four and five star hotels. Last year, the number of people holidaying in the lap of luxury in this country rose by over ten percent to nearly 3.5 million. To respond to the surge in demand, tens of new and deluxe high-end hotels are planned. Prague alone can expect nearly 20 of them in the next couple of years. But will this phenomenon be felt outside of Prague in the regions?

Although drug abuse is a criminal offense in the Czech Republic, the existing legislation does not distinguish between hard and soft drugs, merely drawing a line between what it calls “a small amount of drugs” and “anything over that amount”. But what exactly is “a small amount” of drugs? The law fails to specify that and it has been up to the police to decide. Now the government has proposed an amendment to the penal code which would let offenders know when they are on dangerous ground. DL has the story:

The official seat of the country’s president and Prague’s most important landmark, Prague Castle, has been placed under administration – or distraint- as a result of debts owed to private firms. So is there a genuine threat that this landmark monument will be sold off to the highest bidder?

The Lane Motor Museum in the US city of Nashville made the news here in the Czech Republic recently when it commissioned a copy of a 1940s Tatra aero sledge or aero luge, a remarkable car on skis. It is just the latest addition to what the museum’s operators say is the largest collection of Czechoslovak cars outside Europe. I discussed its vintage vehicles with owner and auto enthusiast Jeff Lane on the phone from Nashville.

Monday is the Irish national holiday St Patrick’s Day, but the 11th Prague St Patrick’s Festival is already underway. The special guest at Thursday morning’s opening was Ireland’s minister for health, Mary Harney. I spoke to Minister Harney about Ireland’s pioneering smoking ban, the country’s cabinet jetting around the world for St Patrick’s Day – and the impact of foreign workers from the Czech Republic and elsewhere on the Irish economy in recent years.