Talking Point | All stories

In this week's Talking Point Jan Velinger covers the First Nation-wide Cat Adoption Exhibition aimed at trying to find homes for almost 60 abandoned cats. Operating under one umbrella group, the recently-formed Association for Animals in Need, a group of shelters from across the country pooled their resources to put together the one-day exhibit, which took place at Prague's Lucerna Palace's Marble Hall (a space normally reserved for ball room dancing lessons!) on Sunday. Several exhibition sponsors were on site to give happy new owners the chance

On May 1st, a Czech couple will hit the road and start a three-year journey around the world - on their bikes. Michal Jon and Lucie Kovarikova plan to cover all seven continents, taking in 33 countries and peddling 70,000 kilometres. In this week's Talking Point Pavla Horakova talks to Michal about the conditions for cycling in the Czech Republic and to a few other people who are trying to improve them.

I'm standing in front of Stefanikova Observatory on Petrin Hill in Prague. On a clear night like this I should be able to see hundreds and hundreds of stars. As it is I can only count several dozen. The reason? Light pollution. Our modern civilisation simply produces too much light which outshines the stars. Experts say that too much light at night can disturb our natural rhythms. Improperly aimed and poorly shielded lamps can be dangerous for drivers and even pilots. Astronomers are badly affected as well as light pollution greatly diminishes the

In last week's Talking Point I examined some of the peculiarities of the rent system in the Czech Republic, a situation that is certainly not ideal. Listeners may recall that the partial continuation of rent control in the Czech Republic's housing market has created a paradoxical rift between tenants in the country. Tenants in search of new leases today are left with little choice but to pay much higher rents on an open market than long-term tenants who continue to enjoy similar, often identical apartments for as little as a third, even a quarter,

With just three months to go before the Czech Republic holds parliamentary elections one of the issues certain to resurface in pre-election debates is the question over regulated rent vs. deregulation. Although most of the parties in parliament are dedicated to pushing some form of further reforms in the housing market, there is still a marked difference in possible solutions that would, once and for all, create a level playing field for all involved, tenants and landlords alike. has a look at the continuing "saga" of rent regulation vs. deregulation

The statistics are alarming: 6 percent of the Czech population have diabetes, that's over six hundred thousand people. On top of that number, there are probably another two percent of diabetics who have never been diagnosed and registered. The number of diabetes patients is increasing all the time and experts estimate that in 2010, there will be over 1 million diabetes patients in the Czech Republic. In this week's Talking Point, Pavla Horakova looks at what is causing this trend and what can be done to make life easier for diabetics in the Czech Republic.

Wherever you live in the world, you probably will have at least heard of the British Council, the French Institute or the Goethe Institute which represent their respective countries abroad. But did you know that the Czech Republic has a similar network of offices around the world? In this week's Talking Point, tells you more about their history and current activities.

Almost sixty years after the Second World War, its wounds have not fully healed yet. One of the issues still open are restitutions of property of former Czechoslovak Jewish citizens who either became victims of the Holocaust or sought asylum in foreign countries. Find out more in this week's Talking Point with Pavla Horakova.

By In the last ten years the nightclub Roxy on Prague's Dlouha street - around five minutes from Old Town Square - has become one of the most popular clubs in the city. Now however it could be closed down The reason - noise.

he Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman recently stirred up a hornets' nest in neighbouring Germany and Austria when he said that Sudeten Germans - the German minority in Czechoslovakia - had been Hitler's "fifth column" in the run-up to the Second World War - and bore the direct blame for the collapse of Czechoslovakia, followed by the grim years of Nazi occupation. In an interview for the Austrian weekly "Profil", Mr Zeman justified the mass expulsion of over two million ethnic Germans after the war with the argument that they were traitors - pure