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A 13-year-old boy and his mother were injured on Sunday afternoon during a "royal" parade on its way to the Czech castle, Karlštejn, echoing historic times. The accident happened in the town of Řevnice. The boy and his mother were struck by a horseback rider who had urged her horse into a trot in order to get up an incline in the road. All other bystanders managed to get out of the way. The boy suffered a hip injury, the mother only scratches. Both were treated at Motol Hospital in Prague. The police are investigating the cause of the accident, including why the rider did not stop to help but continued on after the incident.

The global ratings agency Fitch Ratings revised its outlook for the Czech Republic from stable to positive on Friday, reflecting the outcome of the recent election. The move came the same day the country’s president asked Civic Democrat leader Petr Nečas to lead talks on the next government. Centre-right parties gained a decisive majority in the country’s general election last weekend on the promise of introducing tough fiscal reforms. The Civic Democrats and two newcomers TOP 09 and Public Affairs could form a government with a comfortable majority of 118 mandates out of a possible 200 in the lower house. They still have to work out details on the economy, the deficit, fighting corruption and other issues. The majority would be the largest held by any Czech government since the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Talks are expected to last for several weeks, with Mr Nečas due to update the president in a fortnight on progress made.

The Social Democratic Party, which fared worse in last week’s than most analysts expected, has begun analysing possible reasons for its weak finish, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes writes. The newspaper notes on Saturday that acting party head Bohuslav Sobotka and others agreed that a new chairman would only be sought in a leadership conference in early 2011. The party has put off the idea for an earlier conference in the fall to prevent possible political infighting ahead of the communal elections. On Friday, almost a week after the election, former chairman Jiří Paroubek spoke to fellow Social Democrats, largely blaming the right-wing media and newcomers Public Affairs for his party’s poor result, the paper said.

The number of Czech allergy sufferers visiting their doctors rose by more than 20,000 in 2009 – to an overall figure of almost 890,000 people, statisticians have revealed. According to the numbers, more than half of those treated were children or teens. The most common problems treated included hay fever and asthma. Jana Wiesnerová of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic said that the average number of patients per 1,000 people rose slightly from 83.2 to 84.8. The region of Zlín had the highest number of patients per doctor (3,572) while Prague had the lowest (1,498).