• Digitally restored Black Peter to see its Prague premiere
    09/13/2017

    The digitally restored version of Miloš Forman’s debut feature Černý Petr or Black Peter is set to have its premiere in Prague on Thursday at Kino Lucerna.

    The restoration was undertaken by the Czech National Film Archive, in cooperation with cinematographer Jan Malíř and sound designer Pavel Rejholec, along with Ivan Passer, who worked on the film as assistant director.

    The new digital version of Black Peter premiered earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where it won an award 53 years ago. On Thursday, it will be screened in Kolín, where it was shot in the summer of 1963.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • US breached arms trade agreement with Czechia: report
    09/13/2017

    The United States have re-sold old weapons from central and Eastern Europe to Syria, despite guaranteeing to be the end user, the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism reported on Wednesday. Some of the weapons were reportedly purchased in the Czech Republic. According to the Czech journalists, who cooperated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, such a procedure would be a breach of the arms trade agreement. The report, which cites publicly available documents, claims that the American Defence Ministry bought assault rifles, mortar shells and other military technique worth 500 billion crowns and subsequently re-sold them to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Czechia to lack 800 medical specialists by 2020
    09/13/2017

    The Czech Republic will lack around 800 medical specialists in 2020, the Union of Private Practitioners warned at a press conference on Wednesday. According to data provided by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics, the number of doctors will drop by 1200 within the next three years.

    The union of Private Practitioners says the main reasons behind the outflow of doctors are lack of finances and increasing bureaucracy. Smaller towns and villages are most likely to be affected by the lack of specialists.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Weather
    09/13/2017

    Thursday is set to be cloudy with occasional rain showers and daytime temperatures ranging between 19 and 23 degrees Celsius.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • ‘Ice Mother’ is Czech hope for 2018 Academy Awards
    09/13/2017

    The Czech Film and television Academy has selected Bába z ledu or Ice Mother, a new feature film by acclaimed director Bohdan Sláma, as the Czech candidate for the 2018 Academy Awards.

    The romantic comedy, shot in a Czech-Slovak-French coproduction, has won the Best Script award in the category of foreign films at the Tribeca film festival in New York.

    The nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced in January and the ceremony itself will take place on March 3, 2018, in Los Angeles.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Czech balance of payments shows surplus of 7.6 billion crowns
    09/13/2017

    The current account of the Czech Republic’s balance of payments, a broad measure of goods and money flowing in and out of the country, showed a surplus of around 7.6 billion crowns in the first quarter of 2017, the Czech National Bank announced on Wednesday. The surplus for the first six months of the year totals 90 billion crowns.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Lower house sits in present line-up for last time
    09/13/2017

    The Chamber of Deputies is on Wednesday meeting for the final time in its current line-up. The next time MPs will gather in the lower house of the Czech Parliament will be after elections in the second half of October.

    Among the deputies who are not running for re-election are ANO’s Jiří Zlatuška, Martin Komárek, former minister of justice Helena Válková and current minister of finance Ivan Pilný. Another well-known face certain not to return to the 200-seat house after the elections is Jeroným Tejc of the Social Democrats.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Brno pushes for right to held events on main square
    09/13/2017

    The authorities in Brno are to go to the Constitutional Court in a bid to win permission to hold events again on the city’s main square. Entertainments were banned on náměstí Svobody following a complaint from a couple who live on the square and said the commotion from such events was intolerable.

    Deputy mayor Richard Mrázek said it was important to maintain order and observe regulations regarding noise levels at night. However, náměstí Svobody is a central square and should serve citizens, he said.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Capital’s Congress Centre set for overhaul
    09/12/2017

    Prague’s Congress Centre is to get a major makeover. The Spanish architecture studio OCA won a competition to design to overhaul of the large building, which looks across the Nusle valley to the city’s New Town.

    The project will cost hundreds of millions of crowns and should begin in three years’ time. Prague’s mayor, Adriana Krnáčová, said the Congress Centre had been frequently criticised in the past for its not particularly sexy appearance and that it had not been easy to pick a winner in the competition to redesign it.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Hundreds of clients of collapsed travel agencies abroad
    09/12/2017

    Over 1,000 clients have been affected by the collapse of the travel agencies Azur Reizen and Maxi Reisen. The firms currently have 450 tourists abroad, according to CPP, the insurance company with which the two have indemnity against bankruptcy. Some 550 more clients have paid for trips with the two agencies.

    Azur Reizen announced on Monday that it had gone bust after 21 years in business. CPP said it was working to ensure the return of the tourists abroad as soon as possible.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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