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The winner of the 24th annual dog sled race called Šediváčkův Long, held in the Orlické Mountains in north-eastern Czech Republic, is Czech Roman Habásko, who won the race with his twelve dogs in 16 hours and 39 minutes.

Some 80 mushers from ten countries with nearly 700 dogs competed in the race, which got underway on Tuesday. Due to poor weather conditions, the routes were shortened to 250 and 170 kilometres.

Šediváčkův Long is considered one of the toughest in Europe. Competitors also have to spend one or two nights sleeping in the snow. 

The foreign ministers of the Visegrad Four, comprising the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, are due to meet with their Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Prague next week. Among the topics on their agenda will be the security situation in the Middle East and north Africa and its impact on the European Union.

Mr Shoukry, who will be in the Czech Republic from Wednesday to Friday, will also hold bilateral talks with his Czech counterpart, Tomáš Petříček. Egypt is one of the Czech Republic’s most significant trading partners in the Middle East. In 2018 the volume of mutual trade reached over 345 million US dollars.

Five Czech police officers, who have temporarily returned to the Czech Republic from a military mission in Baghdad, are due to return to Iraq on Saturday. The officers returned to Czechia 16 days ago due to a restricted operation of the training centre in the Iraqi capitol.

The Minister of Interior, Jan Hamáček, said their the move had nothing to do with the development of the safety situation in the country. The Czech Army currently has around 40 soldiers and police officers in Iraq mainly working to train Iraqi security forces to fight against the ISIS militia.

They remained stationed in the country despite the conflict between the Us and Iran following the US drone strike on a leading Iranian general.

Marián Jurečka has been elected chairman of the Christian Democrats at a party congress in Prague on Saturday. Mr Jurečka, former agriculture minister, received 205 out of 357 votes. Šárka Jelínková was elected first deputy chair.

Unlike his main rival for the post, Jan Bartošek, the new chairman is reserved about possible cooperation with the current opposition parties and has not categorically ruled out collaboration with the ruling ANO party.

Speaking to delegates after his election, Mr Jurečka said the Czech Republic needs people who want children. He also said he wanted to focus on the problem of housing shortage.

The outgoing leader of the Christian Democrats, Marek Výborný, who has been in the post for less than a year, has stepped down following his wife’s sudden death in late September.

Sunday is expected to be mostly overcast, with occasional snow-fall and day-time highs ranging between -2 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The number of reported crimes in Prague has increased in 2019, after a five-year steady decrease, the Czech News Agency reported on Saturday. Police in the Czech capital recorded 49,863 crimes, which is 2,262 more than in 2018. Around a quarter of the cases have been solved.

The most significant increase was recorded in terms of property thefts. Violent crime has also slightly increased, with the number of murders up by 5 at 22.

The overall crime rate in the Czech Republic in 2019 increased by around 3.5 percent compared with the previous year with around 199,221 criminal acts investigated. Crime increased in 12 out of the country’s 14 regions with the two exceptions being the Liberec and Zlín regions.  

In tennis, Czech world No.2 Karolína Plíšková has failed to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open. The world number was defeated by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-7, 6-7 in a match that lasted two hours and 28 minutes.

The only Czech left in the singles competition is Petra Kvitová, who will face Maria Sakkari of Greece in the fourth round on Sunday.

IT specialists from around the country will be taking part in a hackathon to produce an online sales system for electronic vignettes over the weekend, following the scrapping of an overpriced deal negotiated by the former transport minister.

Hundreds of IT specialists are said to have volunteered to take part in the endeavour to produce a functional online sales system which they will offer the government free of charge.

The hackathon is due to start at 6pm on Friday and according to its organizer ,IT specialist and entrepreneur Tomáš Vondráček, they should produce and online system by Monday morning.

The government's IT commissioner Vladimír Dzurilla has said the government appreciates the assistance and will put it to the best possible use.

Saturday should be clear to partly cloudy with morning fog and day temperatures between – 2 and 2 degrees Celsius.

Three Czechs are trapped in the Chinese city of Wuhan which is on lockdown due to the spread of the new coronavirus. Two are students and one is a permanent resident in the city of 11 million inhabitants. All are reported to be safe.

The Czech Foreign Ministry has said it is in contact with all three of them and has entered into negotiations with the local authorities to try and get them moved to another location.

Meanwhile, the Czech Foreign Ministry has warned Czechs travelling to China to exercise increased caution; avoid crowded places, food markets and take the recommended health precautions seriously.

The Czech authorities have said they are ready to effect screening measures at Prague’s international airport should the need arise.