Current Affairs | All stories

The town of Chomutov in north Bohemia is up in arms. Its controversial mayor Ivana Řápková has declared war on the town’s 4,000 or so debtors, most of them members of the Romany minority. After a court banned the town hall from seizing their social benefits to make up for unpaid rents, the mayor took a new tack – ordering a wide-scale confiscation of debtors’ property for unpaid fines.

Amnesty International has criticized Canada’s decision to reintroduce visas for Czechs. On Tuesday, the Czech and Mexican branches of the organisation sent a joint letter to Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney calling on Ottawa to scrap tourist visas for both countries’ citizens. In the letter, the NGO drew attention to what it called ‘serious human rights concerns’ in both the Czech Republic and Mexico. The head of the Czech branch of Amnesty International, Dáša van der Horst, says that Canada’s decision has affected the Czech Republic’s Roma

Over the centuries, Prague has hosted many outstanding scientists from across Europe – among them the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler spent a full twelve years of his life in the Bohemian capital at the beginning of the 17th century and it was here that he carried out some of the most important observations. This week a new museum opens to the public in Prague in the actual house where the astronomer lived 400 years ago.

After record losses in the first half of this year, the Czech Republic’s national carrier Czech Airlines is now fighting for its very survival. That was the message at a news conference given on Wednesday by senior executives at CSA, who described the problems facing the airline as a “fatal cocktail”.

A row over the management of the Czech Republic’s biggest national park and forest has blown up. Political leaders in the regions which the park straddles have accused local managers and the environment ministry of failing to curb the tree damaging bark beetle. And they have warned they are prepared to take drastic measures unless there is a departure from methods allowing the beetle to thrive in areas where forests are allowed to develop naturally.

The World Athletics championships in Berlin were a disappointment for the Czech team, who took only one medal, Barbora Špotáková’s silver in the women’s javelin. Czech fans had been hoping the Olympic champion would bring home the gold, but in the end Špotáková (28) finished behind Germany’s Steffi Nerius. Back home in Prague a week later, how does the Czech athlete feel about having come second in Berlin?

Czech PM Jan Fischer visited Vienna on Monday for talks with Austrian officials that included the completion of the Temelín nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia as well as the planned expressway between Vienna and Brno. While the Austrian government is planning to finish its part of the controversial road as originally planned – on the Czech side the project is delayed by lawsuits.

British MPs say they are seriously concerned about lorries registered outside the UK being a safety threat on British roads. A report by the House of Commons Transport Committee called on Monday for foreign lorries that are not up to UK standards to be taken off the road. Press reports pointed a finger at the Czechs as being the worst offenders with 60 percent of their lorries failing roadworthiness tests in the UK.

One of the ways to contain the current economic crisis, it seems, might just be to work less, and a plan to that end is gaining currency in the Czech Republic. The four-day work week has stemmed the rise in unemployment elsewhere, and now it’s an idea that is getting support from all sides of the table.

Police are investigating an attack on former prime minister and Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek. He was injured on Friday after objects were thrown at him while he was on the campaign trail ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. After previously ruling it out, police now say that the attack could have been “ordered,” stirring up speculation about who might have been behind it. But the circumstances surrounding the incident are still confused.