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Sunday’s motorcycle race in Ostrava ended in tragedy after several drivers were caught up in a dangerous pileup on a closed track. The accident happened shortly after the race had started. One driver was killed and four others were injured, one of them seriously. The cause of the accident is not yet clear.

Czech Post wants to franchise around 200 of its small outlets within the next two years, the company’s general director Martin Elkan told Czech Television on Sunday. At present it has 49 such outlets. Czech Post has come under fire for wanting to close down dozens of small unprofitable outlets around the country. Its CEO said that this was no longer on the agenda but that the company had to find a compromise solution.

The ANO party of the ruling coalition has surged ahead in popularity ratings. According to a survey conducted by the polling agency Aisa the party would now get 31 percent voter support, as compared to the 18.6 percent it won in last year’s general elections. The Social Democrats, which won the elections with just over 20 percent of the vote, would now only get 16 percent, followed by the Communist Party with 11.5 percent and TOP 09 with 11 percent of the vote. The Civic Democrats would get 7 percent and the junior party in the ruling coalition would get 5.5 only just crossing the 5 percent threshold needed to win seats in the lower house.

Another Czech soldier has been injured during an attack on a nigh patrol at the Bagram military base in Afghanistan. The patrol came under fire from insurgents not far from the base which the Czech unit serving under ISAF is protecting. The injured soldier underwent surgery at a US military hospital in Bagram. He is reported to be in stable condition. On Tuesday this week four Czech soldiers were killed and another was seriously injured in a terrorist attack near the Bagram military base.

The Czech Republic is the second worst country in the EU in which to start up a business, according to a report by the World Economics Form. A survey among local entrepreneurs indicates that the process of setting up a business is bureaucratic and time consuming. Respondents also noted the difficulties of acquiring start-up loans. Only 15 percent of Czechs have moved to establish their own private business, which is the lowest number in the EU.

A viral epidemic is threatening bee colonies in central Bohemia. Experts say it is the seventh outbreak this year. Bee-keepers in more than a hundred towns and villages are at risk and have been placed in a quarantine zone, meaning they are not allowed to move hives and queen bees outside this region. Regulations in this country ban treating infected colonies with antibiotics. All such colonies must be destroyed.

Georgian filmmaker George Ovashvili’s Corn Island won the main prize –the Crystal Globe Award - at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday night. The psychological drama is the story of an old peasant who transmits the wisdom of life to his granddaughter and reflects on the importance of harmony between man and nature. The winning film was made in coproduction with Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan.

The audience's prize went to a Czech entry - Olga Sommerova's documentary film The Magic Voice of a Rebel, which tells the life story of singer and dissident Marta Kubišová.

The Best Actress award went to Ella Fanning for her performance in Low Down, a U.S. film directed by Jeff Preiss and Nahuel Perez Biscayart picked up the Best Actor award for his role in All Yours, a Belgian-Canadian movie directed by David Lambert.

The jury's special prize went to Hungarian film maker Goergy Palfi for Free Fall. The main prize in the East of the West category went to Ivan Tverdovsky’s Corrections Class, a Russian-German co-production.

Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec and Police President Tomáš Tuhý have concluded a three-day working visit to Croatia. Craotia is one of the most popular holiday destinations with Czechs and the two country’s police forces cooperate in dealing with holiday makers’ problems. Throughout the summer and autumn a group of Czech police officers join Croat patrols to help deal with traffic accidents, thefts of documents and other problems. They also operate a phone helpline in Czech. According to the Croat authorities Czech tourists are relatively problem free and the joint patrols eliminate serious problems.

A Czech health insurance company has launched a pilot health awareness project for the parents and children to help fight obesity, the ctk news agency reports. Five percent of Czech children are obese and a growing number of them are overweight, largely due to a bad lifestyle. Doctors and insurance companies have been trying to reverse this trend since 78 percent of overweight children carry the problem into adulthood, resulting in serious health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. The prevention pilot project is for one parent and child and focuses on nutrition and physical activity.

A Prague taxi-driver who had gone missing for several days, sparking fears he might have been murdered, has contacted his family from Paris to confirm that he is alive and unharmed. His disappearance triggered a nation-wide search in connection with the still unexplained murders of three Prague taxi-drivers since the beginning of this year. One was shot in the head from behind in February after taking his client to an abandoned location outside Prague, the other two were murdered in a similar fashion in April. The case has spread panic among Prague taxi drivers and many are refusing to pick up clients on the street.