News

Czech police have arrested and charged a man who they believed started last year’s fire in the Bohemian Switzerland national park, the Czech News Agency reported on Friday citing police spokesman Kamil Marek. It is the same man who started several fires in the nearby area around the town of Děčín in Northen Bohemia. The responsible court has decided to place the man into custody.

The fire, which spread across 1,000 hectares of the national park and was widely covered in the media, took 20 days to put out, involving no fewer than 6,000 firefighters. If the individual is found guilty, he could face a jail sentence of up to 15 years.

Archaeologists have discovered around 40 fragments of an ancient vessel dating to the fifth century BC in the village of Milovice near Jičín at the construction site of the D35 motorway.

The vessel, which was found at a former settlement from the Celtic period. According to archaeologists, it was adorned with figurative motifs and was most likely imported there from the Mediterranean.

According to archaeologists, only a few fragments of the so-called red-figure vase paintings were found on the territory of Czechia to date.

Other objects, including fragments of iron tools, stone mills and grinding wheels were also discovered at the site.

The adoption of the euro is not a pressing topic given the current economic situation in Czechia, the country’s prime minister, Petr Fiala, told the Czech News Agency in an interview published on Friday. The head of the country’s government said that it is first necessary to sort out Czechia’s budget deficit and tame inflation, adding that the current economic situation in the country does not actually fulfil the conditions of the Maastricht criteria that define when a state is ready to adopt the currency.

He thus echoed the words of his finance minister, Zbyněk Stanjura, made at a conference of the government Civic Democratic Party two weeks ago. The government also agreed not to set a definite date on when the country should aim to adopt the Eurozone currency.

Mr Fiala said that the government is overall seeking to slim-down the state and increase its effectivity. Once laws covering deficit reduction and the currently proposed pensions reform are approved by the country’s legislature, the government will seek to speed up the realisation of major strategic projects that the prime minister hopes will help the country’s economy in the coming decades. This includes investments into education, transport infrastructure and security.

Germany is stepping up police patrols at its borders with Czechia and Poland because of illegal migration, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced on Friday, the DPA news agency reported. Local police officers will be supplemented by mobile units and police will intensify so-called "hidden spot checks".

Ms. Faeser rejected demands from representatives of Saxony and Brandenburg that permanent checks be introduced at the borders Czechia and Poland, arguing that such a move was a last resort that could only be introduced in case of a serious threat to public order and internal security.

Ms. Faeser is due to meet with her Czech counterpart Vít Rakušan at the Czech-German border in Petrovice-Schwandorf on Friday to discuss the current situation.