News

Meteorologists in the Olomouc region say temperatures rose to a record high on Monday. Reaching 27.2 degrees Celsius in the Jeseniky area, they were two degrees higher than when the last temperature record was broken fourteen years ago.

Education Minister Dana Kuchtova says the case of eight-year old Ondrej who was severely abused by his mother has highlighted loopholes in the law on home schooling. In a live TV debate on Sunday, the minister said she plans to tighten the terms under which parents are allowed to teach their own children. Under current legislation, these children are examined once every term; Minister Kuchtova would like to make the examinations more frequent. She pointed out the Education Ministry was not able to prevent what happened to Ondrej. He did not go to school, allegedly due to his hearing impairment. Another child living in the family, a 13-year old girl with no legal identity who is now missing, did not attend school either.

The mayor of Prague, Pavel Bem, has descended to his base camp after reaching the top of Mount Everest on Friday, his assistant said on Sunday, adding that he has completed the most demanding part of the climb. Mr Bem, a senior figure in the Civic Democratic Party, became the tenth Czech to reach the world's highest peak. He was criticised both inside and outside his party for taking two months leave from his post as mayor of Prague.

Earlier this week, a Czech mountaineer, whose name remains unknown, died during the ascent of Mount Everest. According to the Foreign Ministry, the time and circumstances of the death of the 47-year-old Czech man are unclear. According to available information, he was the sole Czech in an international expedition and he died at a camp at 8,300 metres above sea level.

A painting by the abstract artist Frantisek Kupka broke the local auction record for a work by a Czech painter when it was sold for 13.4 million crowns (around 643,000 dollars) at a Prague auction on Sunday. The starting price for the work, "Abstract Composition," was 8.5 million crowns. The previous record for a Czech painting auctioned locally was set last December when a collector paid 9.3 million crowns for a work by Josef Capek, who was a cubist before developing his own primitive style in the 1920's and 1930's.