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Come 2011, the Ministry of Labour wants to see state employees’ salaries cut by 10%. That was the main point of a proposal put forward on Thursday as part of the coalition’s pledge to reform the public sector. The relevant unions wasted no time in voicing their absolute opposition to a plan that will likely be a matter of heated debate for months to come.

On Thursday evening the Czech Republic’s main awards for wine producers were presented at a ceremony in Prague, with the main prize going to Josef Valihrach, whose winery is located in a small town in south Moravia. The head of the jury was Ivo Dvořák, a founding member of the association of Czech sommeliers. We caught up with him the morning after to find out about the winner, what challenges wine production in the country is facing, and if the quality of Czech wine has improved in recent years.

The former director of the country’s biggest nuclear plant Temelín, František Hezoučký, is in hot water after it emerged that he attempted to leave the plant carrying nuclear material in his briefcase a few weeks ago. Both the police and the State Office for Nuclear Safety are now looking into the incident.

The Czech government has moved to crack down on foreign workers who overstay their welcome in the country. At the same time it has set up a new system for attracting qualified foreign workers.

What is being called the first classic barber’s shop in Prague has just opened its doors around five minutes’ walk from Wenceslas Square. Its owner says the aim is to recreate the atmosphere of a barbershop from Czechoslovakia’s inter-war First Republic, and provide the modern gentleman with a luxurious experience in a masculine environment.

Police have shelved an investigation into an unusual practice dubbed ‘baby flying’, in which infants – some as young as three weeks old – are swung around by their hands and feet. The courses had been offered by a private childcare specialist in Prague. But the police became involved when Czech Television aired hidden camera footage of the practice, which paediatricians say is dangerous.

In the first two weeks of its showing, the new Czech film Kajínek has shattered all of the country’s previous box office records. The ambitious home-grown take on the crime thriller genre, based on the story of convicted contract killer Jiří Kajínek, received massive promotion but its popularity has also been fuelled by persisting doubts about Kajínek’s guilt.

Prague councillors on Tuesday approved a controversial plan to create a special camp for the city’s homeless somewhere in the suburbs; a place where they would be given food and shelter, while remaining conveniently out of sight. Councillors argue that this will bring relief to both the general public and the homeless. However, human rights activists and non-profit groups have raised an outcry against what they see as a dangerous policy of segregation.

A gruesome find has made headlines in the Czech Republic: police have uncovered human remains in what appears to be a mass grave in a field near the village of Dobronin, in the Jihlava region. Fifteen Germans are said to have been brutally murdered there by the locals in the turbulent days after the end of World War II. The discovery is the first piece of evidence pertaining to this long-forgotten massacre and has once again re-opened a dark chapter of Czech-German history.

One of the country’s most respected poets and literary scholars, Ludvík Kundera, died on Tuesday at the age of 90. The writer (a cousin of the internationally-renowned author Milan Kundera) had a wide scope, writing poetry, drama, prose and translating from several languages. Last year he received the Jaroslav Seiffert prize for life-long achievement.