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The Czech National will keep the current set interest rate at 2 percent. The news came following a Bank Board meeting on Wednesday, where only two out of the seven members voted for an increase.

Analysts questioned by the Czech News Agency see unpredictable developments abroad and the expected decrease in inflation as the main reason behind the decision.

Close to a third of the upper-house of Parliament, some 26 senators, have called for the Czech embassy in Israel to be moved from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. More members could join in the initiative, Senator Zdeněk Papoušek of the Christian Democrats said at a press conference on Wednesday. Moving the Czech embassy to Jerusalem is a policy which has long had the support of President Miloš Zeman. However the government has thus far remained unclear on the issue.

Despite the United States recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017, the European Union has thus far been unwilling to do so until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.

An exoplanet is now called after a word made famous by Czech author Karel Čapek – Makropulos – the Czech Academy of Sciences reports. The word was chosen through a public competition initiated by the International Astronomical Union where any Czech citizen could send a proposition that was then reviewed by a scientific commission. Although there are already some 450 objects in space named by the Czechs who discovered them, it is the first time that the general public has had a chance to do so.

Located within the Lynx constellation, Makropulos circles a star called XO-5. The planet itself is a so-called “hot-Jupiter”, a gas giant which orbits its parent star very closely.

Some 4,500 sent name proposals, but only one out of seven was in line with the rules set out by the expert commission. The Czech Republic was not the only country to take part in the competition, 110 states altogether were each allocated an exoplanet to name.

Meteorologists expect Thursday to be cloudy, with temperatures around 7 to 8 degrees Celsius. However they could reach as high as 14 degrees in Moravia and Silesia during the afternoon.

The Czech Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Jaromír Balda to change his conviction qualification from “terrorist attack" to “public threat", Czech Television reported on Wednesday. The 71–year–old man was convicted of terrorism after seeking to derail a train by cutting two trees onto the tracks. His aim was to create the impression in Czech society that Muslim immigrants were behind the attack, but the attempt failed. Mr Balda originally faced the prospect of five to 15 years in jail, but was only given a four year sentence, due to diminished sanity.

The Christian Democratic Party will seek to counter an increase in parental allowance, recently passed by the Chamber of Deputies, by an appeal to the Constitutional Court. Party Chairman Marek Výborný said that the new legislation is discriminatory because it does not concern all families with children up to the age of four. The appeal is currently being prepared and will be issued once President Miloš Zeman sings the bill and it comes into effect.

Parental leave is set to increase by CZK 80,000 in January. However, opponents say that the legislation will stop some 70,000 families, who have already used up their current allowance, from accessing the extra money.

The largest Czech online supermarket Rohlik.cz has opened up a new online food store in Hungary. Called Kifli.hu, the website offers foodstuff deliveries in Budapest and the surrounding area. The founder of Rohlik.cz, entrepreneur Tomáš Čupr, says it is one of the most important events in the company’s history and hopes the new website will become the number one online food delivery store in Budapest within a year.

Mr Čupr founded Rohlik.cz in 2014. The company is currently active in seven Czech cities and has served over 1 million customers.

The Chamber of Deputies has voted in favour of a bill that would give courts the power to prohibit breeders from keeping animals for up to 10 years in cases of animal cruelty and up to 20 years for companies. A group of 80 MPs originally intended the legislation to increase the prison sentence for animal torture and their illegal breeding from five to eight years. However, the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs rejected the proposal.

The new legislation is primarily aimed at individuals and companies who run commercial animal breeding facilities such as puppy farms. These animals are often held in small cages under unsanitary conditions. According to the State veterinary administration, cases of animal cruelty reports and convictions increased last year.

Events commemorating the eighth anniversary since the death of dissident, playwright and former Czech president Vaclav Havel are took place across many cities across the Czech Republic this Wednesday.

In Prague, people were able to light a candle and listen to readings from Havel’s works on Jungmanovo Square. Later, a special mass in honour of the former president was heard in the Church of Our Lady of the Snows. In the evening several other events remembering Havel took place across the city, including a march to Prague Castle and speeches from Václav Havel’s friends and colleagues. Events were also taking place in regional cities such as České Budějovice and Ustí nad Labem.

Václav Havel died on December 18, 2011, at his country house in the village of Hrádeček located in the north east of Bohemia. He is seen as the icon of the Velvet Revolution which ended communism 30 years ago and served as president for three consecutive terms.

The average mortgage rate in the Czech Republic fell slightly to 2.35 percent in November, according to an index run by financial advisors Fincentrum. It is the 10th month in a row that home lending rates have fallen in the country.

Mortgages in the Czech Republic hit their lowest price, 1.77 percent, in December 2016 and have on the whole grown since then.