http://www.radio.cz/en A daily in-depth look at current events in the Czech Republic. en Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:18:02 +0200 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:22:18 +0200 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS http://img.radio.cz/logo_100.gif http://www.radio.cz/en 100 55 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radio Broadcasting cr@radio.cz webmaster@radio.cz http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132318 How satisfied are Czechs with their sex lives? Rather satisfied, it appears. At least according to the results of a new nation-wide survey that have just been presented in Prague. The study also revealed that some Czech men have a tendency to over-estimate how well they are endowed. Radio Prague spoke to one of the report’s supervisors, Professor Petr Weiss of the Sexology Institute of Prague’s Charles University. Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:18:02 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132318 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132317 A new festival that has just got underway in Prague focuses on social outreach or community theatre, in which professionals engage in a hands-on way with the world around them. The organisers of the Akcent festival have brought together leading directors in this field from around Europe, with the aim of kick-starting a similar movement in the Czech Republic. Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:17:52 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132317 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132296 Petr Nečas has now been Czech prime minister for 100 days, a milestone in any leader’s career. He became chairman of the Civic Democratic Party just as campaigning for parliamentary elections was getting underway, and soon after voting at the end of May found himself head of a three-party right-of-centre coalition. But what kind of prime minister has Mr Nečas been so far? Radio Prague has been gauging opinion. Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:17:31 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132296 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132270 After years of preparations, the Czech Education Ministry has launched a trial run of the new state school-leaving exams that should test the system before the real exams are sat by some 100,000 secondary school students next June. A vast majority of the country’s secondary schools are taking part in the mock examinations, although many teachers and students have doubts about the new system. Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:56:48 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132270 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132269 The Czech Republic has stepped up security in the wake of US warnings of a possible terrorist attack in Europe. Tightened security measures are in place at airports, railway stations and bus terminals as well as around foreign embassies and high-risk facilities. Although the Czech Interior Ministry has said it has no evidence to suggest that the perceived threat of an attack by Al Qaeda terrorists relates specifically to the Czech Republic. Radio Prague asked security expert and former head of the country’s military intelligence service Andor Šándor what could make the Czech Republic a potential target. Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:56:47 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132269 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132191 One of the most violent cases of attempted robbery seen in the Czech Republic in some years took place on Thursday. A man who tried to rob an exchange office in the town of Krnov was detained by customers and staff, but when he was being arrested, a grenade went off, killing the perpetrator and injuring six others, four of them police officers. Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:26:59 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132191 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132190 The daily Mladá fronta Dnes on Thursday revealed that a former Prague district mayor had been intensively monitored by a detective agency four years ago. On Friday the plot thickened, with the paper asserting that a multitude of officials at the Prague 11 town hall had been clandestinely investigated and that detectives with ties to the coalition’s Public Affairs party were responsible. Both the government and the opposition are now calling for answers. Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:26:55 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132190 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132189 The post of United States ambassador to Prague has gone unfilled since the start of 2009, when the previous, George Bush-appointed ambassador resigned. Now it appears the job will remain vacant for even longer, after the Obama administration’s choice for envoy to the Czech Republic was rejected in the US Senate. Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:26:52 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132189 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132153 Prague’s Galerie Rudolfinum has officially opened one of its most ambitious projects to date: the exhibition Decadence Now! Visions of Excess, looking at the use of decadence in contemporary art. The show – featuring work by such artists as Cindy Sherman, Joel-Peter Witkin and the late Robert Mapplethorpe – will shock some but enthuse others, and in all cases draw a strong response. Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:01:37 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132153 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132152 A plaque was unveiled in Prague on Thursday to a fascinating figure of modern Czech history, General Alois Eliáš. General Eliáš, who had fought in the Czechoslovak Legions in the first world war, was appointed prime minister during the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in the second. While in that post he worked with the resistance – and became the only head of government of an occupied state to be executed by the Nazis. Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:01:35 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132152 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132138 The government has answered local council calls they be given more powers to stamp out gaming machine or so-called herna bars across the country. Proposed legal changes seek to put some order into a chaotic and poorly regulated multi-billion crown sector which many suspect is a front for criminal activity and money laundering. Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:06:26 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132138 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132121 Tuesday was a state holiday in the Czech Republic, the Day of Czech Statehood, which marks the feast day of the patron Saint Václav, or Wenceslas. While it has always been a red-letter day for Czech Roman Catholics, who commemorate the martyr’s murder in the year 935, it is only in recent years that the date has gained in political significance. This year the office of the government marked the occasion with a special ceremony to return an 80 year old film epic about the holy monarch to the screen. Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:04:01 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132121 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132120 More than 2,000 astronauts, engineers and scientists are currently rubbing shoulders at the Prague Congress Centre, for the annual International Astronautical Congress. The meeting, being held here for the first time since 1977, covers subjects as diverse as the future of the International Space Station and whether there’s life on Mars. Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:03:59 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132120 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132110 A war of words has erupted between the two Czechs charged with steering the country’s external relations: the president and foreign minister. The clash stems from concerns that the Czech opt-out from the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty demanded by President Václav Klaus might not be looking so solid. Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:38:07 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132110 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132085 The Czech Film and Television Academy has made its choice for which film to send to the 2011 Academy Awards, putting its trust once again in director Jan Hřebejk for his drama Kawasaki’s Rose. That Mr Hřebejk has Oscar potential we already know – his WWII drama Divided We Fall was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2000 – but was Kawasaki’s Rose indeed the best candidate for an Oscar on offer; that’s a question I put to film critic Ilona Francková. Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:03:23 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132085 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132084 The outspoken Czech President Václav Klaus raised more than a few eyebrows at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York when he suggested in his address on Saturday what was needed was not an increased role for the organisation in global governance. While he agreed some reforms were necessary - namely to the Security Council – he made clear that the UN needed to adhere more closely to its founding principles. Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:03:19 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132084 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132004 The south Moravian city of Brno has a new attraction. The city hall recently unveiled a new clock in the central Freedom Square which officials hope will become a new symbol of the city. But many locals snicker at the six-metre tall object, and not just because it’s quite hard to tell the time from it. Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:15:28 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132004 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132003 The sound of sirens set in motion the wheels of a nightmare scenario at Temelín – a nuclear leak that would threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The two-day training exercise held this week went through the motions of a crisis scenario involving Temelín employees, integrated rescue services and local officials in order to ascertain their action-capability and degree of coordination in the event of a real disaster. Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:15:25 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132003 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131956 A new exhibition at Prague’s Municipal Museum recalls the days when people only had one day off a week, but really knew how to make the most of it. Entitled Prague Restaurants on Days Out, it shows the largely disappeared world of hostelries where people would stop for refreshment at the end of a day-trip from the capital. Radio Prague spoke to the exhibition’s curator, Tomáš Dvořák, to find out more. Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:28:43 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131956 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131955 Analysts and economists began getting to grips with the final format of next year’s budget on Thursday morning. Former Social Democrat finance minister, Pavel Mertlík, now chief economist at the Czech unit of Raiffeisen Bank, gave his impressions of the overall package. Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:28:41 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131955