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Organisers in the Czech Republic have launched a project similar to Great Britain’s Jolly Riders Foundation, whereby anyone can donate an old bicycle to a child in Africa. Although in operation only briefly, Kola pro Afriku (Bikes for Africa) has already taken off and is attracting broad interest.

The Israeli author Tom Segev is in Prague to launch the Czech translation of his acclaimed biography of the Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal. Entitled Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends, Tom Segev’s latest work offers a critical yet compassionate look at the complicated man who devoted his life to tracking down Nazi criminals. Radio Prague spoke to Tom Segev during his Prague visit, and asked him how different the real Simon Wiesenthal was from the myths he himself helped create.

After many months of delays, and several years of arguing, the Slav Epic will go on display in Prague’s Veletržní palác on Thursday. Alfons Mucha’s Art Nouveau masterpiece has been at the centre of a heated dispute between the town of Moravský Krumlov, where the 20 enormous canvasses were kept until recently, and the City of Prague, which has made no secret of wanting to put the work on permanent display. As for the painter’s own wishes, the Slav Epic was willed to the Czech capital upon his death in 1939, but on the condition that a special building

The Czech national hockey team has not been firing on all cylinders so far at the Ice Hockey World Championships hosted by Sweden and Finland. In three games, it won twice and lost once, but each match was a struggle, the last – against Denmark – came down to penalty shots. Can the squad turn things around moving forward – putting together a faster, more dynamic game?

On Sunday, Socialist contender François Hollande swept to victory in France’s presidential election. However, French voters in Prague favored the conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Why are French citizens who cast their ballot in the Czech capital more conservative, and what is the significance of Socialist Hollande’s win?

Less than a year before Czechs take to the polls to directly elect their president for the first time in history, some of the major political parties have begun choosing their candidates. However, both the ruling Civic Democrats and the opposition Social Democrats seem to struggle with the process: the former party’s most hopeful candidate quit the race before it even began, while one of the latter party’s picks is hesitant to run for them. Commentator Erik Best says this reflects the parties’ mixed feelings about direct presidential elections in

The Czech Republic will see another round of protests against the government’s austerity measures. Agriculture industry leaders on Wednesday announced they would block roads and slow traffic in protest of plans to cancel tax rebates on diesel for agricultural firms, and a planned introduction of a tax on wine.

The news agency Bloomburg has given the Czech Republic the inglorious distinction of first place on its Global Vice Index – a combined list of alcohol, drug, cigarette and gambling prevalence in 57 countries. While Czech primacy in beer consumption may be incontestable, the index also cited the country as 12th in the world in gambling, 5th in cigarette smoking and 2nd on the planet in drug use. What’s more, the amalgamated information from the World Health Organisation, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and others, gave the Czech Republic a damning

The long-vacant post of Minister of Education, Youth and Sports has been taken up by Petr Fiala, political scientist and former chancellor of Masaryk University in Brno. Currently the science advisor to the prime minister and a political independent, Dr Fiala has been roundly praised as an excellent choice to lead a ministry facing an exceptional number of hurdles.

Two massive wooden boxes, each weighing over 300 kilograms – that was what the botanist and pharmacologist Bohuslav Jiruš left the National Museum in his will some 100 years ago. The humungous mystery crates came with one instruction: They should not be opened until 200 years after Jiruš’s death –the year 2101. Now, the National Museum has published the surprising result of its vote on whether its researchers should be allowed to take a peak inside with computed tomography.