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It’s the kind of thing your parents or grandparents recommended you did when you suffered a cold as a child: to gargle with salt water. But it turns out that recommendation made a lot sense. The latest research – a study in the Czech Republic – has confirmed that plain old sea water can be effective, indeed more effective, than regular medicines in treating children’s colds.

An unprecedented case in Czech criminal history, which shocked the public last year, has finally come to court. Petr Zelenka, a 31-year old male nurse who worked in a hospital in eastern Bohemia’s Havlíčkův Brod, stands accused of murdering seven patients and attempting to kill at least ten others by injecting them with heparin, a blood-thinning drug which can be fatal if administered in excess.

Stock markets around the world fell sharply on Monday amid fears of a looming recession in the United States. The Prague Stock Exchange was no exception. The PX’s main index ended trading down 4.62 percent at 1,489.6 points, its lowest closing figure for the last 15 months. The markets still appeared jittery on Tuesday, as nervous traders waited for Wall Street to reopen. So why does what happens 6,500 kilometres away in the United States have such an effect on the economic pulse of markets far, far away such as the Czech Republic? That’s a question

The former Czech president Václav Havel was admitted to hospital over the weekend with chronic bronchitis and a heart problem. Although his private secretary was quick to reassure the public that his condition was not serious and that Mr. Havel simply needed to get some rest, latest reports suggest that the popular former head of state may need more intensive treatment.

The bird populations of many European states could change drastically by the end of this century, warns a freshly released study entitled “A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds”. In fact, global warming could cause the average European bird species to move over 500 km north-east. Here in the Czech Republic, swans for instance could become a real rarity by the year 2100, while hundreds of bird species currently centred on the Mediterranean could begin appearing in this part of the world. I discussed the implications of the new report with

For the first time in the country’s history the Czech Republic will see presidential candidates face off in a (most-likely) televised public debate. Incumbent Václav Klaus originally resisted the idea on the grounds such a contest made little sense within the Czech system, in which the president is elected by Parliament and not by direct vote. But late last week Mr Klaus changed his mind and as a result on January 29th he and challenger Jan Švejnar will field questions from lawmakers in the Senate.

Two soldiers from the Czech contingent in Basra, southern Iraq, were wounded after a rocket hit their section of the Basra air base early Sunday morning. The soldiers only suffered light injuries caused by shards of glass shattered by the blast. This is the second time the Czech section of the Basra air base was hit by insurgent fire since last April.

On Monday evening, Prague plays host to the second annual ‘Night of the Open Churches’ festival. The programme offers out-of-hours prayer services and concerts to Prague’s devout, and just plain curious, citizens. A number of the city’s churches, from right across the Christian spectrum, are taking part in the event. Zuzana Dvořáková is the organiser of the festival; she outlines what is on the programme:

The mayor of Plzeň has banned a march by neo-Nazi skinheads planned for this Saturday. The ban was announced amid protests from the Jewish community and concerns it could end in violent clashes with anti-fascist demonstrators, as happened in Prague in November. It's now unclear whether far-right activists will attempt to ignore the ban and travel to Plzeň, with chatter on neo-Nazi websites suggesting they may gather in Prague instead.

The Czech Army is facing yet another scandal. Two officers of the army’s General Staff have been accused by the police of fraud for having created a slush fund to buy luxury gifts for their high-ranking colleagues. While the two officers have been demoted to the rank of private and fired, the police may yet raise charges against other members of the General Staff.