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It's been a year since a new smoking law went into effect banning smoking in public places such as schools, cinemas, state administration offices and bus and tram platforms. Despite the fact that you now see fewer people smoking in public places smoking still kills 18 thousand Czechs every year and a disturbingly high number of young people are taking up the habit.

The Art Nouveau "Slav Epic" is considered the magnum opus of the artist Alfons Mucha. But for decades the paintings have been housed "temporarily" in a chateau in a small Moravian village which is difficult to reach. The city of Prague has long wished to build a home for the paintings, and a spokesman now says construction of a permanent gallery could start in a little more than a year.

Some 100,000 people in the Czech Republic - that's one percent of the population - suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Half of them need around the clock intensive care, and many families are simply unable to cope. At the moment, there are no dedicated institutions in this country for Alzeheimer's sufferers. But that is set to change, with the opening of a new network of special homes over the next six years. Dita Asiedu reports:

Most of us have probably come across the astronomical terms nova and supernova - but did you know that the word "nova" was actually coined by an astronomer with a close connection to Prague? It is 460 years to the day since one of the founders of modern astronomy Tycho Brahe was born, on December 14, 1546. He spent the final years of his life in the Czech lands and he found his final resting place in Prague's Týn Church, within earshot of the famous Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square.

Lengthy talks on forming a broad coalition government collapsed on Wednesday evening in an abrupt twist in the six-month political saga since inconclusive parliamentary elections in June. The right-of-centre Civic Democrats, who are running the country in what is essentially a provisional government, announced they were breaking off talks with the leftist Social Democrats.

"Aby deti vedely" -or "so that children know" is an EU funded project that aims to teach fourteen and fifteen-year olds about human rights. The idea is not new - what makes it special is that it aims to break with the old practice of memorizing a text, instead encouraging children to talk about various aspects of human rights, and help them to understand the lessons to be learnt from the past.

It's not so long ago that Czechs had to get used to a new name of a traditional alcoholic beverage, when what for generations was called "rum" was renamed "tuzemak" - short for "tuzemsky rum" or "domestic rum". That was because of EU regulations stipulating that only spirits distilled from sugar-cane can be called rum. Now it appears that a popular dairy product, traditionally marketed under the name Pomazankove maslo, a kind of fresh tasting creamy cheese, will have to change its name, too.

Otakar Motejl, the Czech Republic's ombudsman or public defender of rights, was elected for a second term of office on Tuesday, and will hold the post for the next six years. Mr Motejl is the country's first ombudsman - the office has only existed since 2000 - and going by its high approval ratings Czechs seem to think he's doing a good job.

The Technical University of Liberec has announced it is opening two branches in Vietnam. It's thought to be the very first time a Czech University has set up campuses abroad. Petr Louda, dean of the Mechanical Faculty, explained how the plans came about.

The Czech Statistical Office has just released a new report on the number of foreign citizens living in the Czech Republic. Its most recent figures show there are over 300,000 foreign nationals with permanent residence in this country. At the end of last year, they accounted for some 2.5 percent of the overall population. Although compared to other EU countries the share is relatively small, it keeps growing steadily.