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The deadly attack in Ostrava’s university hospital in which a gunman killed six people and injured three others on Tuesday, shocked the nation and opened up many questions regarding security around so-called “soft targets”. I spoke to former Czech Military Intelligence chief Andor Šándor about the present state of security in Czech hospitals, what more can be done to increase it and the lessons to be learnt from Tuesday’s attack.

Sitting in a living room during World War II; lying on a bunk in a steam ship on your way to America or standing in Wenceslas Square among the thousands of protesters at the height of the Velvet Revolution. What did it sound like? What did it feel like? The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids tells the story of Czechs and Slovaks in peace-time, under oppression and in the turmoil of war, bringing back memories to those who remember and sharing the story with those for whom it is entirely new.

Czechia used to have a large German-speaking population. The „Bohemian-Germans“, as they were called, inhabited especially the border region of the Sudetenland. However, many of them started settling here since the Middle Ages deep in the heart of what used to be the Duchy of Bohemia.

The once picturesque village of Libkovice lay nestled in a small valley not far from the hilltop where legend has it the primal Father Čech decided his people would settle in Bohemian. Founded nearly a millennium ago, Libkovice was the last town slated for liquidation after 1989 to make way for coal mining operations. Its residents, together with environmental activists faced off against freshly minted capitalists in an ultimately futile battle to save the village, which lay above a rich seam of coal. But the sad story has one silver lining: the

There are many places in US where you will find Bohemian cemeteries, established wherever Czechs settled in the country. The Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago was formed in 1877 and, with its 120 acres it is one of the largest. Chuck Michalek, Bohemian National Cemetery Association board member and delegate, took Radio Prague’s editor-in-chief Klára Stejskalová through the grounds and began by explaining how the cemetery was established.

In a remarkable work of oral history, four students with the help of former dissident and award winning author Aleš Palán have produced a 270 page history of the events that took place in Prague on November 17, 1989. One of them is Alžběta Ambrožová, a 26 year old graduate of English and American Studies. She says that around 300 testimonies were collected through a mix of interviews and online questionnaires. I began by asking her about how people felt going into that watershed event in Czech history.

One of the many undertakings commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the return of democracy to this country is a collection of interviews, quotes and photographs compiled by the award-winning Czech documentarist Barbora Baronová in cooperation with the Czech Centers.

On November 4, 2004 the Czech Senate approved legislation to end compulsory military service in the Czech Republic. It led to the full professionalization of the armed forces, but also marked the end of a tradition that stretched as far back as the times of Austria-Hungary. Although it has been 15 years since the country’s young men were freed from service, the debate about whether it should be reinstated seems very much alive.

Czech professional rock climber Adam Ondra is the only male athlete in the sport to have won World Championship titles in the “lead climbing” and “bouldering” categories in a single year. Along with the category of “speed” – for the first time ever – those disciplines will be a part of the Olympic Games as of 2020, under the catchall category of “sport climbing”.

Czech Immigrants first started settling in Chicago in the 1850s and continued in several waves in the 20th century. Today the city has the biggest number of Czech-Americans living in the US, with localities known as ”Prague” and “Pilsen”. I recently visited Chicago for the 80th Moravian Day celebrations and took the opportunity to stop by the University of Chicago, where the tradition of Slavic studies is almost as old as the university itself.