Current Affairs | All stories

The Czech Parliament has failed to overrule a presidential veto of a bill which was meant to lift a ban on the use of foxes in the training of burrowing dogs. Under the current regulation, foxes can only be used in dog training if they are blocked off from the dogs so that the animals cannot hurt each other. While Czech hunters complain that during real hunts, poorly trained dogs are easy prey for wild animals, animal rights activists endorse the persisting ban, emphasizing the cruelty of full-contact dog training. Radio Prague spoke to Marcela

A recent ruling by the Czech Advertising Standards Authority has stated that a billboard advert for an energy drink featuring a picture of a sleeping foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg is unethical. This represents one in a series of similar rulings by the authority. So is the regulation of advertising in the Czech Republic going too far or not far enough?

The secretive international organisation the Freemasons tends to follow two main traditions, broadly-speaking English and French. The Czech Republic was unusual in that both traditions of Freemasonry were followed – until the weekend that is, when the country’s two grand lodges merged.

Now, feeling peckish? Not sure what to have for dinner tonight? How about duck foie gras "au torchon" on a quince compote and spice bread pan-fried escalope with cardamom and white polenta? Or maybe yellow fin tuna caramelized with ginger and tartar with sesame seeds, red onion and orange and sour tomato sorbet? Those are just some of the dishes on the menu at Prague’s Allegro restaurant, which has just become the first restaurant in the former Eastern bloc to receive the coveted Michelin star. Among those who’ve eaten at Allegro – located in the

According to figures released on Monday, inflation was running at 7.5 percent in the Czech Republic in February – as it had been the previous month. Many Czechs are concerned about spiralling prices of everyday goods and services – and the government has even increased the old-age pension to offer some relief to the elderly. Why is inflation so high? And how long can it remain at current levels?

One of the legends of Czech theatre, the actor Radovan Lukavský, died on Monday at the age of 88. Lukavský’s renown was largely built on such performances as his 1960s Hamlet at the National Theatre, though many Czechs will remember him for his part in a 1970s TV adaptation of a novel by Alois Jirásek. Ruth Fraňková looks back at the life of one of the all-time great Czech actors.

Just a few years ago the Jewish Museum in Prague launched its Lost Neighbours project, aiming to piece together the stories of forgotten Czech Jews persecuted by the Nazis in the Holocaust. The project, most unusually, brings together stories recorded and researched not by journalists or professional historians, but by elementary and secondary school students, with the aim of helping young people learn firsthand about what happened sixty years ago.

The majority of Czech parents usually don’t think twice about smacking their naughty children, and would explain that “to spare the rod is to spoil the child”. However, this age-old philosophy may soon shake in its foundations. The minister responsible for human rights and minorities Džamila Stehlíková has just proposed a ban on smacking children, arguing that in some cases it can border on child abuse. The public may take some convincing but many psychologists say that is the way to go. Ruth Fraňková reports:

Monday marks the 60th anniversary of the mysterious death of Jan Masaryk, foreign minister of Czechoslovakia in the 1940s and son of the country’s founder and its first president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. On the morning of March 10, Jan Masaryk’s body was found in the courtyard of Černín Palace, the seat of the Foreign Ministry. To this day his tragic death remains unexplained and is one of the great mysteries of modern Czech history.

Now, you might not think of beer drinking as a particularly strenuous thing to do, but the brewer Pilsner Urquell has just unveiled a new glass which, it says, makes the whole activity even easier. Over the next couple of years, the brewery expects to distribute more than one million of its streamline new glasses to restaurants and bars throughout the country. Radio Prague was at the launch: