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The days of the pale-red 50 crown banknote, featuring the likeness of Saint Agnes of Bohemia, are numbered. In an aim to cut back on costs, the Czech National Bank announced the paper 50 would be taken out of circulation by the spring of 2011. It will be fully replaced by the copper and zinc 50, which has gradually dominated the bill in recent years.

Winemakers in Moravia and Bohemia are bracing themselves for an extremely low harvest this year, with estimates that crop levels could be 50 or even 80 percent lower than usual. A combination of severe weather conditions throughout the year is being blamed for poor grape yields, which are expected to lead to an increase in the prices of Czech wines next year.

One of the tools available to police investigating economic crimes is the authorisation to look into personal tax data. However, that will no longer be the case once a new tax code takes effect on January 1, and makes it impossible for anyone other than the state prosecutor to inspect such information. The situation has pitted the Interior Ministry, which wants a last minute change to the approved legislation, against the Ministry of Finance, which is standing firm on keeping the new tax code.

The winners of this year’s Czech Press Photo – a competition recognising the very best in Czech and Slovak photography – were announced on Monday. This year the prestigious main prize, known as the Crystal Eye, was awarded to freelance photographer Martin Bandžák; the international jury chose as the winning entry his portrait of an injured girl in hospital, a survivor of the devastating earthquake which hit Haiti this year.

“The world we want to live in” is the theme of this year’s Forum 2000 international conference, which has just got underway in the Czech capital. The annual event, held under the auspices of former Czech president Václav Havel, brings together public figures from around the world to consider some of the most poignant issues of our times. This year, the conference discusses the ways we influence the environment, and out responsibility for the state of the world.

This week Prague is hosting its biggest annual festival of design. Now in its twelfth year, Designblok brings more than 200 presentations of new designs, as well as exhibitions, fashion shows and lectures taking place in selected showrooms, boutiques, and galleries all over the city. It has become a tradition that the centre of the exhibition programme, the so called “Superstudio”, is located at a different place each year. Ruth Fraňková spoke to Jana Zielinski, the director of Designblok, to find out about this years’ venue.

The row over the Slav Epic, a series of 20 large canvasses bestowed to Prague by their creator, the Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, has entered a new round. Prague City Hall decided on Friday to ignore a new ban issued by the authorities in Moravský Krumlov, where the paintings have been on display since the 1960s, and to go ahead with their relocation to the capital. Both sides now accuse each other of breaching the law, while the painter’s grandson John Mucha has likened Prague’s latest move to “a rape” of the masterpiece.

At the present time there are around 120 thousand people with Alzheimer’s disease in the Czech Republic. Health experts say they expect that number to quadruple in the next forty years as the average life expectancy grows and the population ages, making it a serious social and health problem. This week the government asked four Czech ministries to produce a comprehensive, long-term strategy aimed at making life easier both for Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel Schwarzenberg, is wrapping up a brief, official visit to the United States where he met with his American counterpart Hillary Clinton. Czech Radio’s US correspondent Vít Pohanka is in Washington and spoke with both officials before and after the meeting.

In recent days Italian and Polish forecasters have released reports suggesting that this winter could be the coldest Europe has seen in the last 1,000 years. The change is reportedly connected with the speed of the Gulf Stream which has allegedly slowed down in connection with the oil spill off the coast of Florida. Some scientists claim the stream will not be able to compensate the cold from Arctic winds –and according to their theory as the Gulf Stream wanes and eventually disappears Europe will have to brace for Arctic winters. Czech meteorologist