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The Environment Minister Tomáš Chalupa has changed plans by the head of Šumava National Park on how to battle the bark beetle, issuing a decision on Thursday that will still allow the manual felling of trees in the park’s most environmentally-sensitive and protected areas but will ban the use of heavy machinery or chemicals. Proposed intervention to fight devastation by the bark beetle in the national park had been at the forefront of a highly public battle between the park’s director, Jan Stráský, and former colleagues, scientists and specialists

President Vaclav Klaus on Thursday appointed Jan Kubice the country’s new interior minister. The former head of a police squad for fighting organized crime comes with the reputation of a zealous civil servant who was not afraid to pick a fight with politicians. He became a household name in 2006 when he leaked a report to the press in which he claimed that organized crime had infiltrated state administration. Who is the new Czech interior minister and why has his appointment infuriated the opposition?

The Czech Republic has become the eighth EU member state to approve the use of a cannabis-based medicine, the British-made Sativex. Czechs also rank among Europe’s top marihuana consumers, and possession of the illicit substance for personal use has been decriminalized. But the country is one of few members of the European Union that still ban the cultivation of hemp for medical purposes.

President Václav Klaus has welcomed the coalition agreement reached by the country’s three centre-right parties on Monday night in an effort to save the country’s pro-reform government. Speaking to journalists in the northern city of Liberec on Tuesday the president said he was ready to accept the proposed Cabinet changes and indicated that he himself had exerted no small effort in helping to break the deadlock. However the cosmetic government reshuffle has raised plenty of criticism and many commentators are skeptical regarding the coalition’s

The Czech Republic’s fragile economic recovery has, among other things, affected Czechs’ beer drinking habits. After an 8-percent drop in beer production last year, data by the Czech Beer and Malt Association released on Tuesday now show that in 2009, imports of low-quality, cheap beers reached a record level of around one million hectolitres, three times more than the previous year. RP spoke to the association’s head, Jan Veselý about the changing beer market in the country.

Leaders of the ruling centre-right coalition stepped away from the brink on Monday night, reaching agreement on a cabinet re-shuffle that would allow the pro-reform government to remain in office. The agreement comes in the wake of a crippling corruption scandal that led to numerous rifts within the governing coalition and resulted in a dramatic slump in public support.

As the crisis in the Czech government has played out over the last two weeks, the country’s President, Václav Klaus, has taken on a key role in how events have unfolded. The president leapt into the turmoil at the point where he was asked to approve the departure of three ministers from the Public Affairs party; his refusal to do so has again raised the question of whether Mr Klaus exceeds the duties of his office or makes the tough decisions that the country needs.

Prague’s Hlavní nádraží or Main Station was once a dank and depressing place, not somewhere you’d wish to linger a moment longer than necessary. Over the past few years, however, it’s undergone a 50-million-euro makeover at the hands of the Italian firm Grandi Stazioni. On Thursday the presidents of Italy and the Czech Republic snipped the ceremonial tape on the station’s new concourse.

The Czech government has found itself is in an ever deepening crisis, and it is unclear whether it will be able to right its course or whether the coalition will fall, paving the way for early elections. Over the last 24 hours, coalition negations yielded few results, while new evidence emerged suggesting that the crisis may have been the result of sabotage by rebel MPs as well as members of the coalition leading Civic Democrats.

Miroslav Tichý, dubbed by some the enfant terrible of Czech photography, died on Tuesday in Kyjov, the south Moravian village where he lived and took his pictures. Many of them are candid shots of Kyjov’s women and girls, and because of their erotic nature, some have labeled his work “voyeur” photography. Nonetheless, Tichý’s biography, combined with the unique, lackadaisical style of his pictures, has made him an international art sensation.