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Less than a week after sales of hard liquor in the Czech Republic were banned in response to the ongoing methanol crisis, the government has announced plans to ease the partial prohibition. Newly produced liquor, tested for the presence of methanol, should be made available within some two weeks’ time. The Czech authorities are also facing criticism from the European Commission which says they should ban exports of Czech spirits to protect consumers in other EU countries.

Organisers from the Transport Ministry’s Road Safety department (BESIP), in cooperation with Czech and German police, launched a one-day campaign in North Bohemia on Tuesday monitoring drivers on the D8 highway. Police stopped motorists and truckers most often for failure to use their seatbelts. But instead of automatically handing them fines, police offered them a choice: to pay up, or take a spin in a crash simulator instead.

In the course of the past week the outbreak of methanol poisonings from bootleg liquor has taken a heavy toll: 23 people have died and over 35 remain hospitalized, many of them in critical condition. Several have gone blind. In view of the enormous publicity the methanol crisis has received and the work of local authorities in spreading the message –how is it possible that every day more people are being rushed to hospital in critical condition and why do so many of them come late?

A new documentary has just opened in Czech cinemas looking at the life of the country’s greatest jockey: eight-time Pardubice Steeplechase winner Josef Váňa. At 59, Váňa competed against riders more than half his age. The film “Váňa – The Greatest Race is Life Itself” reveals not only the racer’s success but the hard work behind all the victories.

Among the first results of last year’s census in the Czech Republic, the Czech Statistical Office released the numbers of homeless people. This is the first attempt to count the number of people living without permanent shelter in the whole of the country. Yet the numbers may be more indicative than realistic.

Almost three days after a country-wide ban on sales of hard liquor was put in place, the number of people hospitalized as well as deaths resulting from methanol poisoning has not abated. The announcement about the 21st victim dying in a hospital in Ostrava came early on Monday morning. The Czech police claim to be making significant progress in tracking down the sources of alcohol with excessive amounts of methanol, but no clear picture of how the spate of poisonings became so widespread has emerged yet.

The Czech health ministry says there have been no new deaths in the last 24 hours from the outbreak of methanol poisoning, and attention is now shifting to the 27 people still in hospital. Help has arrived in the form of an effective but expensive antidote called fomepizole, eighty boxes of which have donated by Norway. They were brought here by poisons expert Dr Knut Erik Hovda from the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Centre in Oslo. Radio Prague spoke to Dr Hovda shortly before he went into a meeting at Ostrava Hospital, and we began by asking

The Czech authorities continue to struggle with an outbreak of fatal alcohol poisoning that’s so far claimed the lives of 18 people, apparently from drinking bootleg spirits tainted with the industrial chemical methanol. The government has banned sales of hard alcohol at outdoor kiosks and mobile stands, and says it’s ready to ban spirits outright if the number of deaths continues to rise.

The legendary Czech actor Radoslav Brzobohatý passed away suddenly on Wednesday, a day before his eightieth birthday. Some of his most famous film roles came in the 1960’s, but the prolific television, theatre and movie star had dozens of roles to his name.

Czech authorities are still clueless regarding the source of bootleg liquor which has killed 11 people across the country over the last six days. The government has established a central emergency response council on Wednesday to in an attempt to bring the situation under control, and is considering declaring a nationwide state of emergency.