News

A newborn boy was discovered in a baby hatch in Teplice, in north Bohemia, in the early hours of Sunday, the founder of the Czech baby box system said. The boy was wrapped in a towel and had his umbilical cord tied with a shoe lace, doctors said. The newborn received the name Milan; he became the 95th baby retrieved from baby boxes since their introduction in the Czech Republic in 2006. There are now around 60 baby hatches in various places in the country.

The Czech interim government is next week set to discuss amendments to the penal code that would increase the protection of children against sexual abuse, the news agency ČTK reported on Saturday. The draft legislation introduces two new crimes – establishing unauthorized contacts with children, and participation in pornographic performances. The cabinet will also discuss legislation increasing the penalties for human trafficking as well as racism and xenophobia. Part of the draft legislation was approved by the government earlier this year but could not reach the lower house which dissolved itself in the meantime.

A nationwide collection of food for the poor started in 111 shops and supermarkets across the country at 8 AM on Saturday. In the first such event to be held in the Czech Republic, shoppers are encouraged to buy foodstuffs and donate them to a food bank which will hand the food out to homeless shelters, retirement homes and families in financial crisis, the organizers said. The collection will conclude at 8 PM. Around 10 percent of the Czech population is under the poverty line but another 1.7 million people are threatened by poverty.

Poet, historian and translator Zbyněk Hejda died on Saturday morning at the age of 83, the news website lidovky.cz reported citing his publisher. Mr Hejda was considered one of the most significant contemporary Czech poets and his work has been described as a “pessimistic lyricism” with strong erotic undertones. Zbyněk Hejda, native of Hradec Králové, was a graduate of Charles University. He faced persecution by the communist regime after he signed the Charter 77 manifesto. His collected poems were published in 1996 under the title “Poems”.