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The Moravian city of Brno has been marking a double anniversary this week: 183 years since the birth of the founder of modern genetics Gregor Mendel, and 150 years since his discovery that led to uncovering the science behind heredity. St. Thomas’s Abbey in Brno’s Old Town – in whose garden Mendel made his famous discoveries growing peas, and which today houses the Mendel Museum – hosted the celebrations on Monday, including an audiovisual show created by award-winning American “biomedical animator” Drew Berry, backed by music from Czech-based composer

The Czech foreign ministry has confirmed that five Czech nationals are missing in eastern Lebanon, although specific details – such as the names of the missing – have been deliberately withheld for security reasons. The ministry says a “massive” manhunt is now underway to locate the group.

Tropical heatwaves that we have seen over the past few weeks have been drying up rivers and reservoirs across the Czech Republic. The majority of the country’s rivers are down to fifty percent of normal levels and in some cases, such as Lužnice in South Bohemia, water levels have dropped to a mere 10 percent.

Turning on the tap of incoming foreign investment in the Czech Republic was one of the main priorities for the new centre-left government when it came to power a year and a half ago. They accused the previous coalition of winding down the proactive policies that brought in big money investments and hundreds of new jobs. But after 18 months, how have the high ambitions played out.

The great Ennio Morricone is due in Prague this weekend to record the score for the new Quentin Tarantino movie The Hateful Eight. Though the veteran composer is closely associated with the genre, his recording with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra will in fact be his first work for a western in many years.

Services were interrupted at one of Prague’s biggest railway stations on Wednesday after a train failed to brake properly, derailed and came to a stop inside the main building at Masarykovo nádraží – around 25 metres beyond the end of the track. An investigation into the incident has been launched and regular services are gradually resuming. Ian Willoughby reports.

There were reports on Tuesday that cycling in the city of Prague went up by some 25 percent in 2014. But as it turns out, the increase may not be as remarkable as initially thought. Vratislav Filler of the NGO Auto*Mat says that while interest in cycling in Prague has continued to improve, the jump registered was largely affected by a one-off dip in the figures.

The Czech Interior Ministry said on Monday it expects up to 7,000 illegal migrants to try and enter the country next year - double the amount who entered the Czech Republic so far in 2015. For that reason, ministers in the government of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka agreed the Interior will now get almost a quarter billion crowns solely focusing on the migration problem.

A helium balloon carrying an acrobat rose in the air above Prague’s Industrial Palace on Monday, marking the start of the city’s annual street festival Za dveřmi or Behind the Door. Over the next five days, Prague will come alive with various street performances, including tightrope walkers and acrobats from all over the world.

Compared with industry, agriculture has been something of a Cinderella sector for the Czech economy. But there are now moves to try and give it a more dynamic character and encourage farmers to process more of the goods they produce and boost local employment in the process.