Current Affairs | All stories

The Czech Army’s six-year mission in helping maintain security at the Bagram military base in Afghanistan will soon come to an end. Newly, the army’s tasks will focus on monitoring and supporting Afghan special forces and operating a field hospital in the country.

Markéta Pekarová Adamová has just been elected chairwoman of the opposition TOP 09. The sole female leader of a party in Parliament is herself just 35 and is reaching out to younger voters. But her main task will surely be ensuring TOP 09 makes it back into the lower house.

The refugee support initiative Češi pomáhaji (Czechs help) has announced it has a list of around 200 Czech families who say they are willing to accept refugees currently stationed in Greek camps. At a press conference on Thursday they called on the Czech government to create a special interdepartmental group which would put the wheels in motion. However, the government says that its conditions have not yet been met by the Greek authorities.

Czech presidential elections are still three years away, provided Miloš Zeman finishes his second term. But candidates hoping to succeed him should already start building their “brand” at least two years before voters head to the ballot box, experts say. A new poll sheds light on the qualities Czechs want in their next head of state.

Animal rescue stations around the Czech Republic are filling up with hedgehogs. The animal shelter in Prague’s Jinonice district, for instance, took in more than 650 hedgehogs since the start of November. Although animal activists appreciate people’s good intentions in helping the spiny mammals, they also say not every hedgehog found in the wild really needs help.

The Czech Army is planning for its biggest restructuring and rearmament effort since the country joined NATO twenty years ago. Top military brass and politicians, convened for their annual meeting, both stressed the need to modernise the army to face 21st century threats.

Czech prisons are crowded with people serving multiple sentences. According to a new survey carried out by Charles University’s Faculty of Law, nearly fifty percent of prisoners in the Czech Republic are currently serving at least two sentences. The study also points out that many Czechs spend years behind bars for repeated petty criminal offences.

Prague police have asked the municipality for a green light to activate automatic facial recognition cameras at six locations. That’s a red flag for some personal privacy advocates, who fear a Big Brother scenario. But law enforcement officials say an upgrade of the Czech capital’s closed-circuit television system is overdue, and controls will be put in place to prevent any abuse.

Retired forward Václav Nedomanský has become the second Czech to be inducted into ice hockey’s Hall of Fame. A member of the Czechoslovak world championship winning team in 1972, was the first player from behind the Iron Curtain to defect and play in the NHL. Nedomanský joins goaltender Dominik Hašek, who is the only other Czech to receive this accolade.

The Stag Moat (Jelení příkop) at Prague Castle, which is currently under reconstruction, opened to the public on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the return of democracy to the country.