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Town Hall in Mělník, 30 km north of Prague, is interested in acquiring a monumental statue of Jan Palach which had earlier been rejected by the government. The statue was made by Paris-based Hungarian artist András Beck in 1969 after the student Jan Palach burnt himself to death in Prague to protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops. Jan Palach, a native of central Bohemia, went to secondary school in Mělník.

The Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair will launch flights between Prague and Nottingham by the end of October, company representatives told journalist in Prague on Thursday. Ryanair hopes to annually transport 60,000 passengers between the two cities; tickets for the new flight should sell at 669 crowns, or just over 40 U.S. dollars, including taxes.

A court in Brno has continued hearing a complex case of child abuse which has shocked the Czech Republic. One of the victims in the case, Ondřej has given testimony, stating that he was often caged and beaten with a bamboo pole by his mother. Barbora Škrlová, one of five defendants in the case has given tearful testimony alleging that she was sexually abused, while also admitting her involvement in physical abuse against the young boy and his ten year old brother Jakub from the town of Kuřim. The abuse came to light last year after a neighbour picked up a signal from a child minding video device in the flat of Klára Mauerová; it showed that one of her sons, aged seven, was being kept naked in appalling conditions in a cupboard. It is also suspected that several other defendants took part in the abuse of the children. In the wake of that discovery, it emerged that Ms Mauerová had tried to adopt 33-year-old Barbora Škrlová in the guise of a 12-year-old girl. The alleged abusers have been linked to a sect headed by Barbora Škrlová’s father; her brother is among the accused. On Tuesday Klára Mauerová admitted to mistreating her children, saying she had been manipulated by her sister Kateřina and Barbora Škrlová into taking what she called a harsh approach to child-rearing.

A new opinion poll by the CVVM agency gives the opposition Social Democrats a substantial lead over the ruling Civic Democrats. According to the poll, 37% of Czechs would vote for the Social Democrats, while only 27.5% would vote for the Civic Democrats. Meanwhile, the communists would gain 15.5% of votes. The Civic Democrats have been consistently trailing in the polls for several months, which has given the opposition Social Democrats additional momentum in seeking early elections.