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After nearly a year of negotiations, the first ethnic Czechs from Ukraine are set to move to the Czech Republic. Some 200 Czech expatriates have so far expressed interest in being repatriated to the old country due to the present situation in Ukraine. A special Czech consulate, which was temporarily opened in Odessa, on Monday started to issue passports and visas to the first applicants.

People living in the Czech border regions have gradually got used to the concept of cross-border medical care within the EU. For many locals, clinics in neighbouring Germany are closer and more expedient than the nearest medical facility in the Czech Republic, while many Germans and Austrians seek out dental care at Czech clinics which are significantly cheaper.

The Prague Shakespeare Company is now rehearsing a new production of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night to premiere at Divadlo Kolowrat in March. The production is already garnering plenty of attention, not least because one of the main roles will be performed by Great Britain’s ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jan Thompson.

The Czech Ombudswoman Anna Šabatová is ringing the alarm regarding the conditions in which some senior citizens live in old people’s homes that fail to provide adequate care. The spotlight on several such homes has underscored a serious problem in a country with an aging population.

The police are taking the fight to road pirates and criminal suspects who try and avoid pursuit in the Czech Republic. In January alone, the country saw numerous such incidents, often ending in crashes and demolished vehicles. The country’s police meanwhile invested in almost 250 metal spike strips which can stop cars in their tracks. The interior minister himself this week took part in testing, acting the part of a bad guy trying to get away.

The Czech Republic is on the brink of a nationwide flu epidemic with all 14 regions severely affected. This year’s strain of flu is reported to be exceptionally aggressive and due to a mutation of the virus it has made the vaccine largely ineffective. The Bruntál region moreover reports four cases of swine flu with one patient in critical condition.

The Ostrava-based project Kola pro Afriku, Bikes for Africa, has just dispatched 200 bicycles to Cameroon. They will be used by locals to monitor elephant populations in an effort to combat the illegal killing of the animals for their tusks. But the latest consignment is just part of a bigger project that in recent years has seen Czechs donate some 15,000 bikes – many of which are today being used by schoolchildren living in rural areas in Gambia. I discussed the work of Bikes for Africa with one of its founders, Roman Posolda.

The government is involved in a wrangle with the country’s judges and state attorneys after a court ruled that they were due years of back-pay due to a miscalculation of their salary levels. The payout would punch a sizable hole in the state coffers – and the government now wants the Constitutional Court to consider the matter.

The Czech Society for Ornithology has named the black-necked grebe Bird of the Year 2015. The water bird, which used to be an indelible part of the Czech landscape, is presently facing the threat of extinction. The Society for Ornithology said one of the main motivations behind their choice was to raise public awareness about the endangered species. I spoke to one of our leading ornithologists Petr Voříšek:

While the number of moviegoers has been dropping in recent years, some cinemas have enjoyed an increasing number of visitors. One of them is Prague’s Aero, which has just received the Europa Cinemas award for promoting European films. Aero, along with Světozor and Oko, are run by the Aerofilms distribution company and have the highest turnout among the country’s smaller cinemas. I spoke to Aerofilms’ Ivo Andrle and first asked him what the Europa Cinemas award meant to him: