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The Czech Union for Nature Conservation has been monitoring the role and presence of beasts of prey for some twenty years now. In the last few years, it has discovered that the number of bears crossing the Slovak and Polish borders into the Czech Republic is on the rise. While only one or two bears resided in Moravia's Beskydy Mountains a few decades ago, there are now at least five that have permanently settled in the region. This may sound like an insignificant development, but as Dita Asiedu reports, Czech environmentalists say it is cause for

A curious international dispute was finally resolved this week - in a rather unusual fashion. The Austrian owner of a hotel located right on the Czech border resorted to trimming the roof of his hotel, which was hanging over the Czech Republic.

It's well-known that Czechs drink the most beer per capita in the world. While this is not about to change, a new poll has suggested, that there are many Czechs that don't drink the brew. Michael Longaro with more.

According to the latest "World Wealth Report", the number of millionaires around the world last year reached 8.7 million, some 6.5 percent more than in 2004. In the Czech Republic the rise was actually steeper. The number of "dollar millionaires" in this country rose by more than 10 percent compared to 2004 and currently there are over 13,000 Czechs with liquid assets exceeding 1 million dollars.

They're calling it a revolution on the roads. On July 1st, the Czech Republic - which has one of the worst accident rates in Europe - will see the introduction of a new law including a points system for driving offences. The new rules are controversial, but the police and Transport Ministry say there is no other way to bring the country's reckless drivers under control.

The International Service of Czech Radio celebrate its seventieth birthday later this summer. Kristy Ironside sat down with Director Mirek Krupicka to talk about station's evolution and what the future holds for Radio Prague, as well as about the anniversary.

It's been over two weeks since the Czech elections heralded a result no one really wanted: an election deadlock. The victorious Civic Democrats and their likely coalition allies could only muster a total of 100 seats—still one short of a majority in the lower house. Meanwhile, the second-place finishers, the Social Democrats, were saying that they would refuse to support a coalition of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Greens. But there seems to have been a shift in thinking now.

Czech landlords are celebrating Monday's verdict at the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that Poland's system of rent control violated the rights of Polish property owner Maria Hutten-Czapska. The Court ordered the Polish state to pay her 50,000 euros in compensation, after agreeing that the state-controlled rent in her property was so low she couldn't afford to maintain the building. Czech property owners have themselves filed some 3,000 complaints with the Court, in a legal campaign co-ordinated by the Prague-based Movement for the

Czech-born writer Milan Kundera is easily one of the most recognisable and more respected names in contemporary European literature, whose work has been translated into many different languages. The irony is that none of his latest work - since Mr Kundera now writes solely in French - has ever been translated into Czech. That apparently provoked one anonymous fan to translate one of the later novels, "Identity" and release it on the Internet.

Thursday was World Elder Abuse Day, drawing attention to the rarely discussed issue of the mistreatment of senior citizens. The day was marked in the Czech Republic by a special reading on the subject - featuring the emotional testimonies of victims and witnesses - and a panel discussion. Michael Longaro was there.