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The global financial crisis, fuelled by the recent fall of Wall Street’s number four investment bank Lehman Brothers, has already hit markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Although no bankruptcies of mortgage providers on the national level are expected, the Czech economy will face a slow down as a result.

It might come as a surprise that there are any natural springs in Prague at all, but in fact there were over a hundred of them at last count. But those figures may soon be consigned to history as in Prague, as well as the rest of the country, these once important sources of drinking water disappear through neglect. The prospect depresses environmentalists, some of whom have set up a new internet project to save the springs. On a cold September morning, I visited one of Prague’s greenest outcrops to see some of the springs in danger and find out

Jíří Čunek, the country’s Deputy PM and Minister for Regional Development has been in trouble several times for his actions and statements regarding Czech Roma. This week, the Christian Democrat leader announced a plan to solve the so-called Roma problem within 10 years. The solution, to segregate Roma into various categories according to their willingness to be “civilized” has raised some eyebrows.

Despite its fast-paced economic growth and strong currency the Czech Republic will most likely be one of the last countries in central Europe to join the eurozone. If Poland meets its target to adopt the common European currency in 2011, all of the Czech Republic’s neighbours will be using the euro in less than two and a half year’s time. The president of the European Commission, Jose Barosso, last week urged the Czech Republic to set a target date for euro adoption, but it seems unlikely that the date will be set this year. I spoke to economist

In reaction to a recent scandal which hit the ruling Civic Democrats, the opposition Social Democrats are planning to call a vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Topolanek’s centre- right government. The vote is expected to take place after the upcoming Senate and municipal elections which, the opposition believes, will deal the ruling coalition a death blow.

This weekend sees the 19th annual ‘Babí léto’ festival take place at Prague’s Bohnice psychiatric clinic. The festival comprises of both music and drama and, for the fifth year running, a special showcase of homeless people’s theatre. One of the acts involved in that section is ‘Bliss’ – a Czech musical theatre troupe made up of sex-workers. The group is run by the Czech charity ‘Rozkoš bez rizika’ (‘Bliss without Risk’), whose work also includes counseling, and testing sex-workers for AIDS. When I met charity head Hana Malinová, she seemed slightly

Today the Czech company Tatra is known for making trucks. But in the past it made cars, including some of the all-time classic Czech automobiles. As part of a plan to bring back some of its classic cars, Tatra had the novel idea of allowing the public to vote on which should be revived. The outcome of the poll has just been announced, and the winner is the aerodynamic Tatra T87, as driven by the great Czech explorers Hanzelka and Zikmund.

The addiction centre at Prague’s Apolinářská hospital – one of the first facilities of its kind in the world - celebrated its 60th anniversary on Wednesday. To mark the occasion, former patients and staff gathered to remember the centre’s humble beginnings, and the pioneer behind the clinic, Dr. Jaroslav Skála.

The Czech government approved the second of two agreements on Wednesday on the stationing of an American radar base on Czech soil, as part of the planned U.S. missile defence shield. Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanová told reporters the agreement would be signed by her American counterpart on September 19th in London. Once that happens, the only thing standing in the way of the radar base would be approval by the Czech parliament. But as Rob Cameron reports, that remains a considerable obstacle.

Civic Democrat MP Jan Morava resigned on Tuesday after being exposed as being ready to use staged photos to blackmail a party rival. But the case has raised some serious questions: can sting journalism be justified if it is used to illustrate some of the shadier practices of Czech politics? Or did the journalists in this case go too far?