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Plans are afoot for a mass cull of the Czech Republic’s wild boar population. Mild winters are causing the animals to breed all year round, sparking a rise in numbers – and a related increase in damage to agricultural land and incidence of boars wandering onto roads.

The winners of the annual Czech Press Photo competition were announced on Monday. The main prize was given to Mladá fronta Dnes photographer Jan Zátorský for his photo of migrants trying to cross the Serb-Hungarian border. The topic that clearly prevailed in this year’s competition was the migrant crisis.

The first group of Syrian refugees granted asylum in the Czech Republic will arrive in Prague on Monday. According to Czech Radio’s flagship Radiožurnál, as many as 70 were expected on a special flight but only three families, numbering 16 people, will arrive. The government opted to use the Medevac programme as the families’ children are to be treated in Czech hospitals.

Eleven years after the event a court will start proceedings over the privatization of Czech hard coal mining company OKD. And one of those following the trial closely will be Czech prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka. As the then finance minister, he piloted the controversial sale of the state’s remaining stake in the mining company for what many say was a fraction of its real value.

Conservationists in the National Park Bohemian Switzerland in north of the country are busy these days collecting wild pears. While they might not be exactly tasty for people, they are an important source of nutrition for a number of forest animals. The national park conservationists are now trying to collect as many seeds as possible in an attempt to re-introduce the once common fruit variety back into the park’s forests.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic is at its lowest level since March 2009. According to freshly released figures from the country’s Labour Office, 6.0 percent of the workforce was jobless in September, down 0.2 percent on the previous month. Meanwhile, the number of jobs available last month was the highest since just after the start of the economic crisis. I discussed the figures with economist Daniel Munich – who explained that the situation is more nuanced than it may initially appear.

This Wednesday marks 25 years since Czech hockey legend Jaromír Jágr scored his first NHL goal. On October 7, 1990, he beat Chris Terreri – then-goalie for the New Jersey Devils. Jágr has since scored an additional 721 regular season goals and will no doubt add more in his 22nd season. What’s more, the forward has promised to grow back the famous mullet hairstyle he sported when he first joined the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Information about the five Czechs who went missing in Lebanon in July has been pretty sparse since the first surge of reports and activity surrounding their disappearance almost three months ago. That silence holds good both for Czech and local Lebanese media. But that story changed on Wednesday with some hopeful news.

Norwegian authorities have ruled that Czech national Eva Michaláková will lose parental rights to her two children: the authorities said that her six-year-old son can be adopted by his foster parents and ruled that she would also lose the right to see her older son, who is now ten. Norway’s Child Welfare Services, the Barnevernet, took the boys away from their biological parents four years ago on the suspicion they had suffered sexual abuse and neglect. However, details were never revealed to protect them.

Czech teachers and psychologists are ringing alarm bells over the growing number of children addicted to the Internet and smartphones. Out of some 120 kids admitted to the Addiction Clinic for children and youth at the General Teaching Hospital in the first year of its existence, every fourth showed symptoms of digital addiction.