Current Affairs | All stories

A former Roma concentration camp in South Moravia was turned into a holiday resort in the 1960s. Now the site is set to become a documentation and educational centre with a permanent exposition on the Romany Holocaust – the first institution of its kind in the Czech Republic.

Drunk driving in the Czech Republic, like other countries, remains a serious problem, so when police announced a clampdown in the Czech capital this week, most probably expected them to apprehend a lot of motorists who were over the limit. But things haven’t quite worked out that way. The daily Lidové noviny has questioned the campaign, saying it’s more about free advertising for a major brewery than actually tackling the problem of drunk driving.

Retired US astronaut Eugene Cernan is one of only three people to have landed on the moon twice. In fact, he is the last human being to have walked on the moon: as commander of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, he was the last astronaut to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module before the crew returned to Earth. As the name might suggest, Mr Cernan is of Czechoslovak descent. Indeed, he carried Czechoslovakia’s flag with him on his final space flight. He told me why:

Hundreds of priceless Czech and Slovak artifacts are submerged after severe flooding in the US state of Iowa. The Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, opened in 1995 by then president Havel, alongside his American and Slovak counterparts, has been devastated by the floods. I spoke to museum manager Gail Naughton about the extent of the damage:

The number of traffic accidents on Czech roads dropped sharply after a new points system was introduced in 2006 but has been on a slow but steady increase since then. To fight the rising number of car crashes, the General Automotive Club of the Czech Republic has joined the European Road Assessment Programme and created a map highlighting the most dangerous roads in the Czech Republic. Radio Prague talked to the head of the Automotive Club’s international department Miroslav Fiřt to find out who the map was meant for.

Following Sunday’s dramatic defeat against Turkey in the Euro 2008 football championships, Czech coach Karel Brückner confirmed that he will step down. We examine his life and career:

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy came to Prague on Monday, a trip that had been planned long in advance but happened to fall on the first working day after the people of Ireland voted ‘No’ to the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. The Czech Republic is one of eight countries that still haven’t ratified the treaty, and the country is seen by many as the biggest obstacle in the path of reviving the ill-fated EU reform project.

Last Thursday, the Czech tabloid known simply as Aha! published semi-naked photographs of the 77 year-old Czech actress Jiřina Bohdalová. The photographs were taken clandestinely, while the actress was on holiday in Turkey. Soon after, it was revealed that Ms Bohdalová had suffered a mental breakdown and was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Questions have since been raised about just how far the Czech media can go and what the limits to public interest really are.

Most EU leaders certainly hoped it wouldn’t come to this: a failure by a single country to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon, the third rejection of proposed reforms to the European Union in three years. Once again, the EU faces renewed crisis with unanswered questions over how – and how effectively – the bloc will function in the future. But while acknowledging the set-back, most EU representatives still want the ratification process to go ahead. By contrast, long-term critics such as Czech President Václav Klaus have already declared the treaty, like

When French President Nicolas Sarkozy packs his bags for a working visit to Prague next week he’ll be taking much less than anticipated. A giant bronze statue of Jan Palach which was to have accompanied him to Prague as a gift to the Czech government is to remain in Paris.