• 07/24/2018

    It should be mainly sunny with the chance of storms in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, with temperatures of up to 29 degrees Celsius. Similar conditions are expected for the following week.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/24/2018

    Jaroslav Staník, a former secretary of the extreme-right opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement, will be tried in court over statements he made about Jews, Roma and homosexuals.

    Staník has been charged with fomenting hatred towards a group of people, infringing upon their rights and freedoms, and denying the Holocaust while calling for genocide. If found guilty, he faces up to three years in prison.

    According to eyewitnesses, including fellow MPs, Staník said last October that homosexuals, Roma and Jews should be shot at birth, and called for members of those minority groups to be gassed. He had allegedly been drinking heavily when he made the comments in the restaurant of the lower house of parliament.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/24/2018

    Police detained 2,376 illegal immigrants in the Czech Republic in the first six months of 2018, the interior ministry said in a quarterly migration report released on Tuesday. Most were from Ukraine, Moldova and Russia.

    The report noted an annual rise of only 132 illegal immigrants being detained in January through June, signalling that the situation has stabilised since the migrant crisis of 2015/2016.

    In terms of so-called transiting illegal migration across the Czech Republic, the ministry noted just 124 cases, of whom 69 were from Iraq, 15 from Nigeria and 10 from Syria.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    The owner of the Transgas building in central Prague, described by some historians as an exceptional example of Brutalist architecture, has requested permission to demolish the structure.

    Prague 2 district authorities now have three weeks to respond to the request from the owner, the international property developer HB Reavis.

    A group of architects and preservationists had lobbied to have the Transgas building, which is situated above Wenceslas Square and built in the 1970s, classified a cultural heritage site.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    Tuesday should be sunny in Prague and central Bohemia, with light cloud cover expected mainly in Moravia. Daytime temperatures are expected to climb to 31 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday, showers and even thunderstorms are likely in both Vysočina and Moravia.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    Due to prolonged drought, the Czech Republic faces an increased risk of brush fires, especially in Central Bohemia and in the northern Bohemian regions of Ústí nad Labem and Česká Lípa.

    The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ) issued a warning on Monday banning people to refrain from making campfires in central Bohemia, noting that more fires ignite from negligence than from natural causes such as lightning strikes. Prague City Hall later also issued a ban on making fires until the heightened danger passes.

    April and May were the hottest in the past 58 years while June was the fifth warmest in nearly six decades. The average temperature for July is also expected to be above average. Over the weekend, fires broke out on forested land in Kokořín, a protected wildlife zone in central Bohemia, and in a remote area a few kilometres away.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    The Czech Republic through the end of 2017 had drawn down only 3 per cent of the nearly 850 million euros worth of subsidies allocated to the country from 2014 to 2020 towards implementing energy-savings schemes.

    According to a new Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) report, the lengthy approval process is a major factor in the country’s failure to make sufficient use of the available EU funds.

    The country has set itself a goal of saving 51 petajoules worth of energy by 2020. Of that amount, 20 petajoules should be guaranteed through European funding. However, not even 1 per cent of the target was achieved by the end of 2017, according to the NKÚ report.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    Inhabitants of the Great Moravian fortified settlement in Mikulčice, which dates back to the 8th century, cultivated cannabis and poppies, as well as peaches, pears and nuts, new research has found.

    A team from the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic specialising in archaeobotany has said a surprising number of ancient vineyards have been uncovered in the region. Some varieties of grapes cultivated by the ancient Slavs have yet to be classified and may have gone extinct or been hybrids, a researcher told the Czech News Agency.

    The Great Moravian fortified settlement is linked to the medieval Christian missionaries SS Cyril and Methodius, who created a special script for Slavs and translated basic Christian texts into Old Slavonic.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    The percentage of Czechs with a university education has increased significantly over the past 10 years, data published on Monday by the statistical office (ČSÚ) shows. Last year, roughly 20 per cent of Czechs had a university degree, up from 12.1 per cent in 2007. However, the figure still lags behind the European Union average, which is about 6.4 percentage points higher.

    The most educated population lives in Prague, where nearly four out of 10 adults hold a university degree. The regions with the lowest percentage of degree-holders are Karlovy Vary and Ústí nad Labem, according to the data, which was drawn from the most recent Labour Force Survey.

    Author: Brian Kenety
  • 07/23/2018

    The Czech Ministry of Defence plans to have dozens of specialists in cyber warfare trained by the end of this year, iHned.cz reported on Monday. They will receive instruction in how to protect websites from hackers from the Czech-Israeli owned firm CyberGym Europe, the news website said.

    A company representative said it was able to draw on Israeli know-how in the cyber warfare field.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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