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A project launched by the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees’ aimed at teaching schoolchildren about migrants has stirred heated debate in the Czech Republic. The Education Ministry has distanced itself from the project and President Miloš Zeman has called it ‘idiotic and naive’ likening it to Bolshevik propaganda.

Brigadier General Franišek Mičánek, head of the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies at the University of Defence in Brno, has been elected dean of NATO Defense College in Rome. He is the second Czech to secure a high post in NATO structures, following General Petr Pavel’s appointment as chairman of NATO’s Military Committee.

The first of a group of 153 Christian refugees from Iraq due to settle in the Czech Republic arrived over the weekend. The plan to take in Christians at risk was initiated by Generation 21 Foundation which has pledged to oversee and finance their relocation. I asked the head of the Foundation Jan Talafant to tell us more about them and what kind of reception they received.

British Prime Minister David Cameron flies into Prague on Friday with the main target to firm up his hopes of sealing a deal on European Union reforms which can be put to British voters in a referendum on whether to stay in or out of the 28-country political and economic bloc.

“Better late than never” – that was the reaction of former chess master and Russian political activist Garry Kasparov to the verdict of a UK inquiry Thursday on the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy poisoned in 2006 via a lethal dose of polonium-210 placed in his tea. According to British authorities, the murder was carried out by the Russian FSB security services, probably on the orders of Vladimir Putin.

Swollen feet and leg cramps are common side effects of pregnancy that tend to get worse with increasing weight gain. Now scientists at Brno’s Masaryk University have developed a line of shoes that alleviate these symptoms and prevent chronic joint problems.

Not only religion, but also freedom of conscience in the broadest sense can be a reason for parents to refuse the mandatory inoculation of their child, the Czech Republic’s Constitutional Court said in a ground-breaking ruling on Wednesday. The decision concerned parents who were recently fined for having refused to inoculate their child on the ground of possible health complications.

Nikas, the winner of the Czech Republic’s prestigious Velká pardubická steeplechase last year, faces disqualification after a second drug test confirmed the presence of banned alkaloids in the animal’s blood. The Czech Jockey Club is set to issue a final ruling.

Last year the EU launched hotspots, reception centres to register the migrants arriving in the bloc in enormous numbers. Now the Visegrad Four countries are calling for them to also be used as detention centres. At the same time, the Czech prime minister has proposed another way to deal with the migration crisis: moving the outer border of Schengen.

Prague's Václav Havel Airport handled a record number of passengers last year. The airport registered over 12 million arrivals and departures, an increase by 7.9 percent compared to 2014 and the highest increase in the past decade. The numbers are expected to increase even further this year with the introduction of new regular long-distance flights. Ruth Fraňková has more.