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Floods threatened homes throughout the Czech Republic during much of March and April. Now the water is subsiding, but authorities are concerned about another possible threat - mosquitoes. The annoying little insects aren't just a nuisance; they can also spread serious diseases. The government took action against possible outbreak this week, before the mosquitoes go airborne.

An autopsy has confirmed that a 37-year-old police officer found dead in the Svratka River did not drown in recent floods - as was previously thought - but was shot. The man was last seen alive on an embankment on April 3rd. It is unclear whether he took his own life or was murdered. It has not yet been ascertained whether the bullet was from the officer's own gun - or someone else's.

Flood alerts have reached their third and highest level in Hradek u Rokycan in western Bohemia, after morning rainfall raised water levels in the Klabava river, which rose above the 2 metre threshold for increasing the alert.

Meteorologists have issued a warning that further towns in Southern parts of the Czech Republic could also still be at risk of flooding. They said that continued rainfall and snow from the mountains could further increase levels in the Vltava and Lužnice rivers over the weekend, but do not believe it will be sufficient to raise the flood alert to its highest stage in these regions.

Water traffic on the Vltava in Prague has partly resumed, following the floods which have interrupted it in the past two weeks. The river is now open to boats between the Barrandov and Jirasek bridges. But Jiri Friedl, of Vltava river management, said that more of the river will be opened depending on the weather in the upcoming week.

The government has decided to double the amount of money to be spent on flood prevention between 2007 and 2010. After a week of heavy flooding which showed that many municipalities were ill-prepared to deal with floods the Cabinet on Wednesday voted to spend eight to ten billion crowns on flood prevention measures and approved the setting up of a special flood fund. The government is also considering the possibility of helping people who live in high risk areas to move to safer ground, by buying their property or offering them a state owned plot of land in exchange for their own.

An exhibition introducing the ELLA project - a transnational co-operation of nearly all regional spatial planning authorities in the Elbe basin - opened in three Czech towns on Monday. The ELLE project, which focuses on flood prevention and integrated water management is financed by the European Union and involves cooperation between over twenty institutions. It was launched shortly after the devastating floods of 2002. The exhibition is currently on show in Ceske Budejovice, Pardubice, and Hradec Kralove. It will travel to Pilsen and Usti nad Labem next week.

Clean up work is underway in many parts of the Czech Republic following a week of heavy flooding. Water levels in the affected areas are continuing to drop and water management has called off a state of emergency in the last two areas in the Elbe (Labe) River basin. Of the thousands of people who were evacuated, only 200 have yet to receive the green light to return to their homes.

Though it rained around the country on Monday, water levels have not been affected. However, meteorologists expect the rain to continue throughout the first half of this week, enough to cause smaller rivers to swell.

Clean up work is underway in many parts of the country following a week of heavy flooding and individual municipalities have started assessing the degree of flood damage. The first overall estimate is 5 billion crowns/ over 200 million US dollars/, but much more will have to go into flood prevention measures around the country.

As the waters receded individual municipalities started assessing the degree of flood damage. The governor of south Moravia Stanislav Juranek has made a preliminary damage estimate at one billion crowns. The Czech Culture Ministry said the estimated damage to national monuments would amount to approximately 10 million crowns. The Terezin Memorial, the site of a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War, was damaged in the floods as were several churches, castles and chateaux.

Clean up work is underway in many parts of the Czech Republic following a week of heavy flooding. Emergency crews are working on the Znojmo dam which has become jammed with driftwood. Their work is complicated by muddy embankments which make it difficult to position heavy machinery. Meteorologists predict more rain and snow showers in the first half of the week, which could send water levels up again.