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The Central Bohemian town of Beroun has just earned the title of Historic Town of the Year 2009. The prize, which comes with a million crown award for the city, honors towns and cities in the Czech Republic that have excelled in preserving and renewing their monuments and historic buildings. Sarah Borufka reports.

Among the souvenirs that tourists bring back from a visit to Prague are little clay figures of the Golem – a giant linked to one of Prague’s best known legends. What few of them know is that there is a fierce battle underway for ownership rights, which has sent a much larger version of the clay monster into hiding.

The world is still in shock over Saturday’s tragedy, when 96 passengers, including the Polish president Lech Kaczynski, died in a plane crash near Russia’s Smolensk. The Polish delegation was on its way to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. In the Czech Republic, the upcoming weekend will be one of national mourning, during which Czechs will commemorate the Polish president and others who died. Sarah Borufka has the story.

The legendary Big Band of Czech Radio is celebrating 50 years of its existence. The history of the band goes back to the 1960s, when it was called the Czechoslovak Radio Orchestra. Over the years, the band cooperated with most of the country’s best known jazz and pop musicians. On Wednesday it will celebrate its anniversary with a concert at Národní Dům in Prague.

The Rail Safety Inspection Office has revealed a sharp rise in the number of deaths on Czech railroads: in the first three months alone, 68 people died on Czech tracks - 15 of those at crossings where drivers or pedestrians failed to heed barriers or warning lights.

A Czech online news server made the remarkable claim on Tuesday that as many as one out of two bottles of spirits sold in the Czech Republic is made on the black market, depriving the state of billions of crowns in unpaid taxes and putting public health at risk. Distillers themselves admit the problem is huge, although they put the figure at more like one bottle in five – still an alarming trend.

There are 27 Czech political parties running in May’s general elections. Only few of them have a realistic prospect of entering the lower house of Parliament, but they all drew numbers on Thursday to put on their ballots. With the elections approaching, Czech expats around the world who want to cast their vote only have until this Saturday to register.

There is nothing like buying fresh produce on an open-air farmers’ market – but what may be common in other European cities has been missing in the Czech capital for years. Now things have finally changed. The very first farmers’ market was held in the district of Dejvice in March and immediately attracted some fifteen thousand people. On Saturday, the stalls opened for the second time.

The Czech NGO People in Need have provided relief and development assistance to the people of war-stricken Afghanistan since 2001. Radio Prague’s reporter Christian Falvey is now in Afghanistan covering the work of the NGO and spoke to us earlier today about the situation on the ground.

Czech leaders and ordinary people are still in shock at the death of the Polish president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and many of the country’s elite, when the government plane they were travelling in crashed. None of the 96 people on board survived the crash on the outskirts of the Russian city of Smolensk. Czech official reactions stressed sorrow at the depth of the tragedy in the neighbouring country with which Prague has strong and friendly ties. Chris Johnstone reports.