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December 10th is World Human Rights Day with both governmental and non-governmental organisations around the world holding events centred on the issue of human rights. In the Czech Republic, the local branch of Amnesty International is marking this event with a ten day marathon letter-writing campaign in support of political prisoners around the world. I spoke with Gabriela Bartová, head of activism at Amnesty Czech Republic, and began by asking her to explain the aims of this campaign:

The annual Design Supermarket exhibition gets underway at the Kafka House in the centre of Prague on Thursday. Now in its ninth year, the event offers a chance to buy original Christmas presents made by domestic and foreign designers while avoiding crowded shopping malls. Ruth Fraňková has more:

Members of the Czech National Security Council met late on Tuesday to discuss new measures designed to protect the country from the threat of terrorism and illegal migration, including better coordination between the security and emergency services in the event of a perceived imminent or actual terrorist attack.

After three years, the renovation of Prague’s National Theatre is complete. The project, which cost 135 million crowns, saw the complete restoration of the theatre’s façade, which in places had fallen into disrepair. Not only has the theatre been restored, many of its magnificent interiors are also now viewable in a special tour online.

Czech communist party MEP Miloslav Ransdorf met with party colleagues in Prague on Tuesday morning in order to explain his arrest by Swiss authorities last week. Mr. Ransdorf and three Slovak acquaintances were detained in Zurich for attempted fraud after apparently attempting to withdraw money from a Swiss bank account on December 3. Though no charges have yet been brought against Ransdorf, many questions remain unanswered.

The former military base in Milovice, northeast of Prague, is gradually being turned into a patch of wilderness. A herd of 14 wild horses from Britain’s Exmoor National Park was introduced into the area in January of this year within a project initiated by the Czech Landscape organisation. And recently they were joined by seven European bison from Poland. I asked Miloslav Jirků of the Czech Academy of Sciences, about this latest stage of the nature project:

The Czech government began to debate on Monday new tougher regulations on the possession of firearms by members of the public. The move comes in reaction to two separate incidents – a mass shooting by a deranged gunman in the town of Uherský brod back in February, in which eight bystanders were killed; and a series of explosions at a munitions storage facility in Vrbětice late last year, which caused mayhem when local authorities were unable to determine exactly what was being stored at the site. I spoke with Jan Bartošek, a security policy legislator

The Czech Republic appears to have got itself in hot water after the government refused to back a letter from seven Central European countries attacking a German-Russian project for a new gas pipeline. The Nord Stream II link under the Baltic would bypass both Ukraine and make Slovakia a backwater for gas transport.

The non-profit organisation Post Bellum has published a call warning against growing intolerance in Czech society. Numerous polls have suggested that a large part of Czech society has little sympathy, for example, for the plight of refugees from Muslim countries. The so-called Advent Appeal, signed by around 5,400 people including about 50 prominent figures, was launched as an alternative – primarily hoping to remind people of humanistic values.

South Korean president Park Geun-hye is in the Czech Republic on a four day visit. South Korea is the third largest investor in the Czech Republic and the top-level talks are expected to give bilateral relations another significant boost with South Korean and Czech companies expected to sign agreements worth billions of crowns.