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After years of speculation regarding its future, the famous Werich Villa on Prague’s Kampa, once the home of the famous Czech actor Jan Werich, is set to get a new tenant. The Prague authorities have just decided to rent the historical building to the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation, which will turn it into the Voskovec and Werich Arts and Social Centre in honour of the great Czech acting duo.

Czech men’s tennis number one Tomáš Berdych has reached the semi-final of this year’s Australian Open, powering past Rafael Nadal in straight sets. In victory, Berdych snapped a 17 match losing streak against Nadal and will now face Great Britain’s Andy Murray.

Czech President Miloš Zeman has called on the world to deal with Islamic radicalism the same way it ultimately had to deal with Nazism in the 1940s. The comments were made at Prague Castle before dozens of European leaders as part of events marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Remembrance events marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, organized by the European Jewish Congress in the Czech Republic have strained relations between Prague and Warsaw and left Czech politicians fending off accusations that the country is pandering to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was not invited to attend the commemorative events in neighbouring Poland.

Nineteen-year-old Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecká fulfilled her childhood dream, winning gold at the World Championships. Way back when her grandfather was a World Championship gold winner in ice hockey; she is the first Czech to have clinched the gold in the parallel slalom.

After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, everybody though that the country’s biggest children’s organizations, Pionýr, would fall into oblivion, being replaced by the more respected Scouts. But Pionýr has bounced back and this year celebrates 25 years since it was reinvented. Ruth Fraňková spoke to Pionýr’s Jakub Kořínek and first asked him if the organisation had any ties to its communist predecessor.

The minister of industry is weighing up an easing of limits on coal mining in north Bohemia, which will be disquieting news to locals who could lose their homes. But the main Czech trade union organisation is pushing for an even more radical move – abandoning the limits completely.

A Czech mother fighting for the return of her two sons in Norway, who the authorities took away from her and her former husband over alleged sexual abuse in 2011, will now see her children only twice a year for a total of 30 minutes. Although charges were never filed in the caase, the brothers have lived in separate foster homes since.

Thousands of elephants in Central Africa fall prey to ivory poachers every year. The Czech Republic is now making a small contribution to the fight against illegal trade in ivory. A specially trained Czech sniffer dog will be sent to over to Congo to help local customs officials detecting smuggled ivory. The project was initiated by the Czech NGO Save-Elephants.

The Czech government on Monday approved measures which will give the country’s intelligence service greater powers in fighting terrorism and organized crime. It also released more money to equip Prague’s international airport with a face recognition system and other state-of-the-art security technology.