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Thirty-five years ago on Wednesday, the Prague department store Kotva opened its doors for the first time. Back in the day, a trip to Kotva was as close as most Czechs could get to real luxury. Now, even after the arrival of modern-day shopping malls such as Palladium, which is located directly across the street from the old-fashioned department store, Kotva is still in business. Sarah Borufka talked to former Elle editor Jana Cíglerová, about what Kotva symbolized for those who lived under communism and how that has changed.

The Czech Centre in the Dutch capital The Hague has been promoting all things Czech since 1994. Last year, more than 60,000 thousand people approached the centre or took part in one of their events. But the economic crisis has put the centre in a difficult situation, as the Czech Foreign Ministry is planning to cut around one third of its budget. Radio Prague spoke to the head of Czech Centre in The Hague Petra Prinsová and asked her how they are coping with the current situation.

New figures released by the government on Monday showed unemployment creeping up towards the dreaded 10 percent mark in January. The registered number of unemployed was 9.8 percent in January, the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry announced, up 3 percentage points year-on-year. However analysts say things won’t, at least, get much worse.

The Institute of Experimental Medicine in Prague has made a potentially very important breakthrough in treating spinal cord injuries. Using stem cells on paralysed rats, the team has managed to heal acute cases of paralysis, returning the animals’ feeling and movement. Now the group has found that seeding the stem cells in a hydrogel implanted in the wound can cure even chronic back injuries. I spoke with the Institute’s Eva Syková, who explained how the new method is a major development in the use of stem cells to treat such injuries.

The Czech government has added 38 historic buildings, areas and objects to the country’s list of cultural heritage sites, bringing it to a total of 274. For the first time a dam, a train, and a hotel appear among the country’s most valued venues.

The result of Ukraine’s presidential run-off on Sunday – a slim victory by opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych – is being seen by some analysts as an indictment of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of five years ago, at the very least a political full-circle that will now see the country move closer towards Russia. That could spell bad news for the EU’s Eastern Partnership programme as well as for regional neighbours such as Poland or the Czech Republic, long concerned with Russia’s growing regional influence.

The freezing cold weather in this part of the world has lasted for more than a month now and most people cannot wait to see temperatures rise. For the country’s hardy men and women however the cold snap has brought new challenges. On Saturday they gathered on the bank of the Vltava River for an annual swimming competition called ‘Branické ledy’, after a former ice storage facility located on the riverbank. I went along to see them in action.

General elections will be held in the Czech Republic on the last weekend of May, the country’s president, Václav Klaus, announced on Friday. The dates are the latest possible on which the elections could have been held. While Mr Klaus had previously hinted at those dates, their confirmation will help party bosses plan their campaigns.

Vratislav Brabenec is a member of the band The Plastic People of the Universe, a thorn in the side of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. But Mr Brabenec is also the author of a book of stories for children, called The Centre of the World is Everywhere, which is now also available in an English translation.

Say the word ‘carnival’ and people usually think of the colourful extravaganzas of Brazil or Venice, but the period leading up to the beginning of lent is celebrated across the world, including the Czech Republic. Here it’s known as “masopust”, which means pretty much the same thing as the Italian “carnevale” – i.e. to refrain from eating meat. Masopust is mostly celebrated in Moravia, but a husband and wife team is trying to resurrect the lavish Prague carnival that was the social event of the year in centuries gone by.