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The surprise political hit of the Czech general election campaign so far, the Public Affairs party, has come under the spotlight for another reason than its high poll ratings. Media attention has focussed on the party’s newly launched street patrols and its populist stance on law and order.

The Czech government has cleared far reaching plans for Czech Airlines to face the future. The state-owned carrier will be relieved of its debt burden but at the price of a significant cut in its size and ambitions. We look at plans for the struggling airline.

The hole in Czech public finances is growing, and will be difficult to patch. Such is the warning message issued by the Finance Ministry on Monday, whose latest figures suggest that over the first four months of this year, the state budget reached the highest deficit in a decade.

On Monday and Tuesday, skincare specialists set up a tent on Prague’s Wenceslas Square in order to raise awareness of the risks of skin cancer. Anyone walking by could get a free check-up and advice on how to protect themselves.

The Czech pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, adorned with a plan of Prague’s Old Town made of hockey pucks, has seen a steady stream of visitors since it first opened its doors on Saturday. In tough competition with around 190 national exhibitions featured in the global fair, the Czech pavilion has so far proved one of the most successful. Radio Prague spoke to the Czech commissioner for Expo 2010, Pavel Antonín Stehlík, and asked him about the first three days of the event.

Czechs go to the polls in just under four weeks for elections to the lower house of parliament. As the deadline approaches, the two main parties have unveiled their final campaign plans. We assess the battle so far and the prospects ahead of the vote.

The extermination of the village of Lidice by the Nazis is one of the most harrowing tales of WWII, and Czech filmmakers are have long wanted to bring it to the screen. The acclaimed director Alice Nellis is set to helm the project, with some of the country’s top actors already on board. But still what would be an important historical film has been in a proverbial development hell for some years now. Amid a dearth of sponsors, the film’s producers are now looking to the public to help complete the budget. Earlier today, Radio Prague spoke with

Member states of the Eurozone are discussing ways of helping Greece and its debt-laden economy, while there are growing concerns about some other countries that use the single European currency. But what will the crisis mean for the Czech Republic, which is itself hoping to adopt the euro in around five years’ time?

April 30 is Čarodějnice, or Witches’ Night. In the past, this date was believed to bring the arrival of spring. People would gather to burn bonfires in order to dispel evil spirits. Nowadays, the celebration is still popular among Czechs, and the organizers of Prague’s biggest witches’ night celebration at Ladronka park are getting ready for a night full of magic and fire.

Earlier this year Micronesia called on the Czech Republic not to refit its biggest coal-fired power station, Prunéřov, saying the pollution it will produce threatens the tiny state’s future. The matter also proved controversial in the Czech Republic itself, leading to the departure of one cabinet minister. However, the Environment Ministry has now approved the project, despite the fact the plant’s owners ČEZ are not planning to install the best available technology.