Current Affairs | All stories

The dispute over the design of the new National Library building by renowned Czech-born architect Jan Kaplický came to a head on Tuesday, when the minister of culture, Václav Jehlička sacked the head of the National Library and the new design’s fierce supporter Vlastimil Ježek. He confirmed that the move was connected with the dispute over the new library building.

Do you feel like having a beer but are you too lazy to go to a pub or a supermarket? If you live in the Czech Republic all you have to do is go on-line and order beer through a specialised e-shop. Czech breweries and internet operators have recently started to explore the ways of electronic sales of beer. One of the new e-shops is the Brno-based pivodomu.cz. Ruth Fraňková spoke to one of its managers Jan Nývlt and asked him how they got the idea to launch this kind of service.

The Czech political scene is currently witnessing one of its strangest affairs in some time. An MP from the ruling Civic Democrats has just resigned after buying what appeared to be compromising photos of a rebel party colleague. Meanwhile, the latter is being slammed for entrapment - and facing calls for his own demise.

“The Rarest Czechoslovak Postage Stamps in the Collection of Ludvík Pytlíček” is the name of a new book which presents arguably the greatest collection of Czechoslovak stamps, compiled by the renowned Czech philatelist Mr Pytlíček. The volume, launched in Prague on Wednesday, also includes the most precious Czechoslovak postage stamp of all times – a four-crown stamp from 1919 of which only a single exemplar is known.

According to the latest government figures, a third of children born in the Czech Republic in 2007 were born out of wedlock. The percentage of extramarital newborns has been on the rise since the early 1990s, although experts say there is a difference between the Czech Republic and those European countries with the highest rates of extramarital births.

Martin Bursík, the leader of the Green Party can breathe a sigh of relief after a convincing victory over the weekend in a leadership contest spurred by his opponents. The party’s annual congress was moved forward by Mr Bursík in order to confront a rebellious faction opposed to his leadership, which accuses him of straying from the party’s roots. Chief among these opponents was Dana Kuchtová, a party insider vying for the top post. Two prominent Green MPs also opposed Mr Bursík’s leadership. Martin Bursík secured 227 out of 349 votes in the first

The Czech Philharmonic kicks off its 2008-2009 season on Friday night with a recital of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 2. It will be conducted at Prague’s Rudolfinum by one of a host of guest conductors filling in while the orchestra waits for the renowned Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal, who takes over in a year’s time. But the philharmonic’s director, Václav Riedlbauch, doesn’t seem too worried about the current lack of a permanent lead. I met him before the grand performance and asked firstly why he’d chosen Mahler for the opening concert:

Czechs seem increasingly unwilling to put their feet up when they reach retirement age. In fact, the percentage of Czechs who receive a pension and keep working is among the highest in the world, according to a new study. What’s more, 60 percent of Czech workers say they too want to remain in employment when they become pensioners.

This week, an exhibition has opened in the town of Cheb of a series of nude photographs of the singer Madonna taken in 1979 before she was famous. The pictures were taken by Czech-born photographer Martin Schreiber, who moved along with his family to New York in the 1950s to avoid communist persecution. When he discovered that he had nude photographs of one of the world’s most famous singers, Martin Schreiber earned limited fame and fortune for himself, selling the pictures to Playboy in the early 1980s. Dominik Jun spoke to him during his visit

The government unveiled its PR campaign for the forthcoming Czech presidency of the European Union on Thursday, featuring a host of Czech celebrities and…a sugar cube. Prime minister Mirek Topolánek says the campaign – featuring the slogan “we’ll make life sweeter for Europe” – aims to make Czechs realise the significance of the six-month presidency. But eyebrows are being raised at the campaign’s rather ambiguous choice of words.