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Czech cross-country mountain bike racer Jaroslav Kulhavý has had a sensational season: earlier this month he defended his title as European Champion and at the weekend he clinched the World Cup cross country series with a win in Nové Město na Moravě in his native Czech Republic. Not only did he lock out his nearest competitors on points on the circuit, he’s looking very good for the Summer Olympics next year.

The death of Ctirad Mašín in the US on Saturday at the age of 81 has reignited debate in the Czech Republic over whether he and fellow anti-Communist fighters, who shot their way out of Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, were heroes or cold-blooded killers. While some see their escape as one of the most daring in Cold War history, others say they tarnished their moral integrity through their actions.

There’s an obscure new trend spreading throughout Central and Eastern Europe - groups of youths from Belgrade to Bratislava to Brno dancing in public to a hardcore Russian techno track, and then posting videos on YouTube. It sounds harmless enough, but the problem is the lyrics have a neo-Nazi subtext.

Prague’s first gay pride parade passed off largely without incident on Saturday, the highlight of a five-day ‘festival of tolerance’ held in the Czech capital. Up to seven thousand gays and lesbians marched through the city centre to an outdoor music festival, with only minor disruption from far-right demonstrators. The event, dubbed Prague Pride, had been overshadowed by a heated political debate over homosexuality and tolerance in the Czech Republic.

More than twenty years after the fall of communism the Czech Republic stands another chance to establish a new relationship between the state and the country’s churches and redress the wrongs of the past. Church representatives on Thursday accepted the government’s proposal for property restitution and a gradual phasing out of financial contributions from state coffers.

The ranks of the organised crime department of the Czech police have hitherto been filled with Czech citizens by law. It is not only Czech citizens though contributing to organised criminal activity in the Czech Republic. While the police do not keep, or at least publish, statistics on crimes committed by non-Czech nationals, a need has apparently arisen to open their doors to foreign job applicants. On Wednesday, the government approved that aim, with the passing of the new conceptual plan for the organised crime unit that will, for the first time,

Are you planning to visit Prague but would like to avoid all the tourist traps? Do you want to spend some time off the beaten track and experience the city the way the locals do? If you consider yourself a traveller rather than a tourist, a new map called Use It will help you to do all that, and more.

The five-day Prague Pride gay festival kicked off on Wednesday amidst heated political controversy. The country’s top political figures, including President Václav Klaus and Prime Minister Petr Nečas have voiced their opinions on the event. Organizers say the media attention will swell the ranks of participants – both supporters and opponents – of Saturday’s gay parade through the city centre.

The Czech charity organisation People in Need working in south-eastern Ethiopia has found a group of roughly six thousand people suffering from hunger and malnourishment. Known for working in remote areas, the organisation was near the Somali border looking into the state of a group of local herdsmen whose cattle had died out and found that they had been joined by several thousand drought refugees from neighbouring Somalia. Local communities have been trying to care for the refugees so far, but their material support - water, food and firewood –

Amidst fears of a new wave of global recession, the Czech economic recovery shows signs of slowing down, with industrial output decreasing in June and unemployment on the rise in July. According to data released by the Labor Ministry, the unemployment rate grew slightly to 8.2 percent in July, the first time the figure has swelled since the start of this year. Similarly worrying is a slow-down in industrial output with a growth of only 7.4 percent year-on-year in June as compared to 15.2 percent in May. I spoke to the Raiffeisenbank’s chief economist