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Police say crime levels in Prague fell to their lowest levels since 1991 last year. They say they were called out to probe just under 72,000 criminal cases, around 12 percent down on 2013. The clear up rate across the board came to 25 percent of cases, that is the best figure since 2002. Car thefts and theft of property from cars, pickpocketing, and burglary were all down. Thefts of bicycles were up. The number of murders increased last year to 28 with eight of the cases still unsolved. Rapes increased to 128 from 88. Police said that rise was partly due to greater reporting of cases.

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg has hit back at the politicization of the case of two Czech brothers subject to Norwegian care authorities, according to a report by Czech Television. She said it was not for politicians to intervene in individual cases, referring to the case of the sons of Czech mother Eva Michálková. She added that when weighing up care orders no difference was made in Norwegian law between the of Norwegian and foreign born children. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka took up the Michálková case last week with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week firing off a second diplomatic note to Norway over it. Czech Christian Democrat member of the European Parliament Tomáš Zdechovský raised the case in the parliament this week saying that Norwegian authorities had removed the children from their parents on the basis of flawed evaluations.

A total ban on smoking in bars, restaurants, and public places could be in force in 2016, under a proposal put forward by Ministry of Health and published on Wednesday. The ban would also cover electronic cigarettes. The proposal also touches on the sale of alcohol with a demand that restaurants and bars sell at least one non-alcoholic drink at a price cheaper than a beer or other alcoholic drink featuring on the menu. Surveys suggest that around 80 percent of Czechs favour a smoking ban in restaurants and bars. At the moment bars and restaurants can choose if they want to impose smoking banks or limits on their premises.

Czech ombudswoman Anna Šabotová has repeated her warnings about the state of some non registered care facilities for elderly in the country. She highlighted the state of four facilities across the country, two were so bad that the details were forwarded to state prosecutors with a view to possible criminal charges. The facilities were ostensibly run as pensions to bypass proper checks but nonetheless offered care for elderly. Šabotová’s office found that some of the elderly were not allowed to move about freely, they were not given enough food and drink, and the wrong drugs and doses were given to them. The number of elderly homes parading as pensions is not known. Šabotová first warned about such facilities last year.