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Czech drivers have a reputation of being aggressive, speeding and taking unnecessary risks. As a result, the country has one of the worst accident rates in Europe with around 1,200 people killed on the roads each year. A tough new points system intended to improve road safety introduced two years ago had only a temporary effect, and the number of fatalities soon returned to previous levels. The Transport Ministry is now trying a different tack – it wants to shock drivers into exercising greater caution, commissioning a series of TV spots with realistic

On Tuesday organisers in Prague launched the official tender for the design of the Czech entry at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, a site to be visited by an estimated 30,000 people every day for six months from May – December 2010. From now until the autumn, Czech firms - in tandem with top designers, artists and architects - will be able to put forward proposals for the Czech site. There is one limitation: unlike Expos in the 1960s and earlier, they will not be designing an entire pavilion but will operate within a given space in an industrial hall.

Prague is one of the best preserved cities in Europe, and it is not unusual to come across a striking variety of architectural styles – from Baroque to functionalism – in the space of a few minutes. But how has the Czech capital fared when it comes to contemporary architecture? It is the subject of a new exhibition entitled The New Face of Prague, which has just opened at the city’s Czech Centre.

In the course of the last 12 months the Czech crown has strengthened by a staggering 22 percent, becoming the fastest appreciating currency in the world. While exporters warn that the super-strong crown will inevitably slow down economic growth, the government sees no threat in the current exchange rate.

The Czech Republic’s most recognised long-distance swimmer Yvetta Hlaváčová – the women’s world record holder for fastest time across the English Channel – has begun a second attempt to tackle the Czech Republic’s famous Vltava River. Last year, enduring chilly waters and the occasional drowned rat, she swam 138 kilometres from Týn nad Vltavou, in southern Bohemia, to Prague, in a record seven days. This year, she set out to tackle the waters again – but with one difference: this time she’s swimming upstream.

Public health authorities in Cheb, western Bohemia, have started contacting men whose names appeared on a list found with a prostitute who died of AIDS earlier this year. Several of the woman’s former clients contacted so far have the HIV virus – and though it is not clear how many men paid her for sex, the fear is that number could be far higher.

The annual Folkové Prázdniny (Folk Holidays) music festival gets underway in the south Moravian town of Náměšť nad Oslavou on Saturday. The week-long event takes place in the grounds of the town’s castle and features a broad selection of both international and Czech world and folk musicians. Ahead of the festival, I spoke to one of its organisers, Daniel Hejl.

Czechs travelling to Canada can continue to do so without a visa. During a visit in Prague on Thursday, the Canadian Minister for Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley said that for the time being her country was not planning to reintroduce visa restrictions for Czechs. She added, however, that the Czech Republic and Canada must work together in an attempt to lower the number of Czechs seeking asylum in Canada.

Over half a century later, the Czech police have, for the first time ever, issued charges connected with the forced collectivatisation of farms by the Communist regime in the 1950s. According to press reports on Thursday, officers recently began the prosecution of a former Communist functionary who is now in his late 70s.

One month after falling victim to the worst floods in the Midwest’s recent history, the Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is getting back on its feet. The museum building may be out of action after flood waters reached the roof of the structure, but it’s business as usual for the museum staff, who are holding their first event since the floods this Thursday night. I asked museum manager Gail Naughton for an update: