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On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Czechs are marking the memory of Antonín Kalina, a Czechoslovak Communist who risked his own life to save at least 900, mostly Jewish children from the Holocaust. A documentary about the unsung hero of the Holocaust was premiered on Czech Television this week while his hometown of Třebíč announced plans to open a memorial hall dedicated to their famous son.

A third person has died from flu in the Central Vysočina region. A 75 year old woman from the Jihlava area died from the flu on Monday, according to local health authorities. Two men died during the previous week. Four out of five major hospitals in the region have closed their doors visitors due to fears that patients are more vulnerable to the outbreak. As well as the Vysočina region, the Olomouc area has also won of the worst affected by the outbreak which health officials have described as bordering on an epidemic.

Police in the region of Vysočina have so far this autumn checked some 1,200 hunters, finding no cases of serious wrongdoing. The news was confirmed by the regional police spokeswoman Dana Čírtková. Examined were permits, the state of hunters' firearms, and whether any alcohol had been consumed. On Saturday alone two hunting parties, totaling some 40 participants, were checked.

Several dozen people took part in an event commemorating the victims of the communist regime in the hard-line 1950s in the town of Jihlava on Sunday. Eleven people sentenced to death in political trials were executed in the courtyard of the local jailhouse between 1950 and 1952, hundreds of others were jailed and thousands of families suffered at the hands of the regime. The event was organized by Jihlava City Hall, the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters and the Confederation of Political Prisoners.

The testing of water samples from a well at a children’s summer camp in the Jihlava area have confirmed the presence of salmonella, officials have confirmed. Roughly a week ago, 28 children suffered health complications at the camp as a result of the bacteria: 17 of them had to be transferred to hospital as well as two adults. The summer camp has been closed for the time being and is due to reopen in mid-August at the earliest.

Telč is a small Czech town in the heart of the hilly Vysočina region, about 150 km south-east of Prague. With barely 6,000 inhabitants, the historic site is built around three interconnected lakes, and has a history stretching back to the 11th century. Arriving here, a visitor can easily find themselves confused by the response to asking where to find the “Old Town” – helpful locals seem to point away from the cluster of historical monuments in the centre. The reason: Telč is is divided into four distinct districts. The “Old Town” part lies on the

In just a few days, the small town of Jihlava on the Bohemian-Moravian border will once again become the centre of the European documentary scene. The annual Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, which is in its 19th edition, will offer hundreds of film screenings as well as some highly-anticipated guests, such as Masha Alyokhina or the “famous” Syrian immigrant Osama Mohsen.

The regional court in Brno has sentenced 33-year-old Marek Teplý, a rapper who goes by the stage name of El Maron, to 11.5 years in prison for a murder committed on December 30 last year. Mr Teplý, who had been drinking heavily, reportedly stabbed another man in the back in a bar in Třebíč. The defendant said he had no memory of the attack; but he admitted to the murder and expressed regret for his actions. Psychologists confirmed he suffered from no psychological problems. Besides the prison sentence, Mr Teplý has been ordered to pay 2.25 million crowns in damages to the murdered man’s relatives. The ruling can still be appealed.

Councilors from the region of Vysočina have signed a document supporting the addition of a new – fifth – reactor at the nuclear power plant in Dukovany, which they see as an important source of new jobs and a boost to the quality of life in the region. The governor of the region, Jiří Běhounek, said he had already discussed the matter with both representatives of the Czech energy giant ČEZ, which runs the plant, and government representatives. Dukovany, older than the only other Czech nuclear power plant Temelín, faces routine tests in September by a team of specialists from WANO. The last such tests were five years ago.

The head of the ANO party in the Vysočina region, Jan Sobotka, will not become member of Parliament as a replacement for an ANO MP who stepped down. Mr Sobotka told reporters on Thursday he would reject the seat in the lower house over a failure to file his tax returns, and a debt in his health insurance payments. Mr Sobotka was to replace another party official elected on the ANO ballot in the region who had resigned over his past as a member of the former communist military counter-intelligence. The chairman of the ANO deputies’ group in the lower house said they would thoroughly screen the next person on the ballot who’ll replace Mr Sobotka.