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Meant to create more synergy between non-profits, the private and public sectors, a project entitled “Czech NGO Weeks” will bring a number of events, seminars and exhibitions to regions throughout the country in February and March. Květa Morávková, one of the campaign’s organisers with the NGO Association in the Czech Republic, discusses the aims of the campaign.

The village of Husinec, in south Bohemia, wants to open a new centre commemorating its most famous son, the 15th century religious reformer Jan Hus. While the municipality hopes the new visitor and research centre will open in time for the 600th anniversary of his death in five years’ time, critics say the project is over the top.

The recently appointed first president of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, visited Prague on Friday. His first stop was the Office of the Government, where he held talks with the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer. The meeting was dominated by economic issues, though the two men also discussed climate change and the situation in Haiti.

Many historical monuments in the Czech are under threat and action needs to be taken to save them. So says the state-funded National Monuments Institute, which has just launched a campaign to draw attention to the subject. But what kind of sites are actually in danger? That’s a question I put to the Institute’s Věra Kučová.

This week saw the country’s first-ever smog alert issued by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, calling on plants in northern Moravia to cut production volume until atmospheric conditions improve. The institute has had the competency since last November under the Air Protection act and did not hesitate to act as the situation in Moravia worsened.

As of Tuesday, the Czech Republic boasts new air navigation technology that will give the country’s aviation an edge over neighboring Germany and Poland. The newly acquired 3D tower simulator is capable of creating various weather conditions, day or night time work situations as well as simulating the towers of all international airports. This state-of-the-art technology will now be used to train future navigators. Miroslav Ehl of the Czech Air Navigation Services explains what makes this device so unique.

The Communist Youth Union got a new lease on life this week after a court cancelled a ban on the organization issued by the Czech Interior Ministry. Falling in line with a previous ruling of the country’s Supreme Administrative Court on the issue, the judges sent the case back to the ministry which should again deliberate whether the far-left group represents a real threat to democracy.

Over two weeks after Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake, the situation in the country remains one of the world’s biggest news stories, with aid organisations and soldiers struggling to distribute food, water and medical care to many hundreds of thousands of people who have been left homeless. Czech Radio journalist Pavel Polák arrived in Haiti four days after the earthquake and reported on the situation there for over a week. After his return to Prague, I spoke to Polák about his experiences.

President Vaclav Klaus has stepped in to stop mandatory vaccination of Czech soldiers against swine flu, telling Army staff the order to vaccinate all 16,000 soldiers was “highly controversial, if not unacceptable.” Mr Klaus – formally commander-in-chief of the Czech Armed Forces – announced in a statement on Wednesday that he’d asked the Defence Ministry to make vaccination voluntary. The ministry, it seems, has jumped to attention.

An increasing number of Czech firms are moving offshore. According to statistics compiled by a Prague-based business information provider, 2009 saw more than 2000 Czech companies register in some of the world’s most popular tax havens, 24 percent more than the previous year.