Current Affairs | All stories

Last December a group of archaeologists from the National Museum returned from an excavation expedition in the Sudanese locality of Wad Ben Naga. They have been working there since 2009 and are helping their Sudanese colleagues fulfil the requirements to enable the whole area to be registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Czech and Slovak community in London are set to lose a venue that has served as a meeting place for generations of refugees and expats. Founded by a Czech Catholic priest in Notting Hill in 1964, the Velehrad centre has provided new arrivals with accommodation and served as a place for various social, cultural and religious events. But the organization that runs the centre has now decided to sell the property, which is a move opposed by many Czech expats in the UK. I discussed the issue with Milan Kocourek, a London-based journalist and the

The new bill on citizenship passed the first reading in the lower house of parliament. If passed into law, it will introduce stricter testing for foreigners applying for Czech citizenship and allow the state to look into the sources of applicants’ assets. But there are also some positive changes that may be introduced. Magda Faltová, the director of the Prague-based Association for Integration and Migration, highlighted the main pros and cons of the proposed law.

More than half of Czechs between the ages of 18 and 22 smoke on a regular basis, lighting up in bars, restaurants and discotheques. But a new study suggests that if a strict ban were in place preventing smoking in just such establishments, many young people might avoid the habit in the first place.

A junction at Prague’s Nábřeží Kapitána Jaroše is set to get an unusual new monument in May, with the installation of a work by the renowned artist Krištof Kintera. Comprising a bicycle attached to a street lamp, Bike to Heaven will serve as a memorial to riders who have been killed in the city, including cyclists’ rights activist Jan Bouchal, who was run over at that very spot in 2006. The monument is being funded by a public collection organised by the civic association Auto*Mat, whose project coordinator Tereza Vohryzková explained the genesis

Within hours of being elected president, Miloš Zeman called for early parliamentary elections, leading to speculation about the chances of Petr Nečas’s right-of-centre coalition serving its full term. Now the embattled prime minister is coming under pressure from within: TOP 09, perhaps buoyed by their chairman’s showing in the presidential vote, on Tuesday issued a demand that opens a fresh fissure in the government.

Residents of the east Bohemian city of Pardubice could be in for an eventful few weeks, as workmen begin the delicate task of decontaminating an area surrounding the local Paramo oil refinery. The work itself would normally be fairly run-of-the-mill, except for the fact that there could be a number of unexploded bombs buried in the ground from the Second World War.

The final days of campaigning before the weekend's presidential election were marked by a bitter row over the postwar Benes decrees that legitimised the expulsion of three and a half million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia. Certainly 'the German card' appears to have played a role, if not a decisive one, in the election of Milos Zeman over Karel Schwarzenberg - an aristocrat who spent four decades living in Austria and whose Austrian wife doesn't speak Czech. Mr Zeman's campaign rhetoric has upset some in neighbouring Germany and Austria - but

The well-known Czech graphic designer, painter, and illustrator Oldřich Kulhánek died in Prague at the age of 72 on Monday. He is best known for creating the images on the modern Czech bank notes, but his other works have served as inspiration for a whole generation of graphic artists.

Within hours of becoming the first directly elected head of state of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman made it clear that he has no intention of being a docile occupant of Prague Castle. Indeed, Mr. Zeman immediately questioned the legitimacy of the coalition government – and called for early parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, elements within his former party are also bracing themselves for trouble from the president-elect.