News

Close to 1,400 children in Prague 6 have been inoculated against hepatitis A in the wake of a serious water contamination incident late last month. The authorities recommended blanket vaccination of all children in the district after it emerged that water from a sewage pipe had seeped into the water pipe carrying water for consumption. There are 4,000 children registered in the area between the age of one an 15. All are being given the first shot for free, which protects them for a period of 5 years, a second shot which affords protection for a period of 25 years costs 1,000 crowns.

A court in Germany's Bavaria has handed a three-year prison term to a Czech “hermit” who lived in the Fichtel Mountains on the border of the two countries and robbed cottages in the area, the news website iDnes.cz reported. The homeless man, who is 62, earned the nickname “Mountain Man from Kornberg” and reputedly only stole what he needed to live over a ninth-month period, taking food and clothing but leaving valuables. iDnes.cz said for this reason he had earned the sympathy of local people.

The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, and his Slovak counterpart, Andrej Kiska, discussed the common European currency in Prague on Wednesday. Mr. Kiska told reporters that he had told his host that Slovakia had benefited from adopting the euro. He made the comment at Lidice in Central Bohemia, which the heads of state were visiting on the 73rd anniversary of its destruction by the Nazis.

Finance Minister Andrej Babiš says all old age pensioners in the Czech Republic will this year receive a one-off allowance of CZK 600 (just over EUR 20). Announcing the move on Wednesday, he said all three coalition party leaders had agreed on it earlier in the week. Pensioners will receive the money in December. Mr. Babiš said that from next year pensions would be index-linked under a new law and would rise in line with inflation.