The Associated Press August 1, 2007, 2:18PM ET PRAGUE, Czech Republic

Tourists visiting one of Europe’s most beautiful cities often face an ugly reality — some Prague taxi drivers like to rip them off.

But City Hall wants to put a stop to that. It is introducing dozens of taxi stands — marked with thumbs-ups signs — that will guarantee passengers a fair fare, a city official said Wednesday.

The city’s fight against price-gouging cabbies intensified two years ago when the mayor himself was ripped off royally. Disguised as a tourist, Mayor Pavel Bem was charged six times the regular fare for a trip between the Old Town Square and the Prague Castle — two major tourist attractions.

Friday, 03 Aug 2007 12:09
Northern Irish travellers will have more choice over their flights from Belfast with four new cheap European flights from Easyjet.

The low-cost airline has announced it will be flying to Prague, Barcelona, Venice and Gdansk from Belfast airport.

Twice weekly flights to Gdansk start from October 30th. There will be four flights a week to the Czech capital Prague, and twice weekly flights to Venice in Italy both from November 1st 2007. All three new flight routes start from £39.98 return including taxes.

Cheap flights to Barcelona from Belfast are set to start from November 3rd 2007 on a three times per week basis, with prices from £34.98 return including taxes.

By CTK / Published 31 July 2007 Prague, July 30 (CTK)

Most Czechs in favour of smoking ban in restaurants
- The number of Czechs who mind smoking in restaurants, bars and cafes is rising and over half of the population would like to ban smoking at such places completely, a poll conducted by the Median agency for the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) has revealed.

The results differ considerably from another poll made by the Eurobarometer agency half a year ago. Only one third of Czechs were in favour of non-smoking restaurants then,MfD writes today.

[14-01-2007] By Ian Willoughby  -  Radio Prague
 Around a month ago I was sitting in a café on Manesova Street, near the centre of Prague, when in walked a small blonde woman of about 40 and sat down at the table beside me. One doesn’t like to stare of course, but she appeared to have two black eyes covered with slender strips of plaster. Minutes later another woman, a brunette, walked in wearing big, dark sunglasses and with a bandage on her nose. They both spoke with broad Geordie accents and I couldn’t help but wonder about them. Were they friends united in misery who had escaped violent partners in England for a quiet weekend in Prague?
 But then the penny dropped. A colleague had conducted interviews with UK clients - is patients the right word for those who undergo non-necessary surgery? - who stay in hotels and luxury flats on the street before and after their procedures. Overheard snippets of conversation touching on operating times confirmed they were not battered brides. The blonde’s freshly unhooded eyes and her pal’s new nose may even have been an early Christmas present from their partners.
Just a few days ago the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) strongly protested against a lottery launched in the UK in which the prize was free cosmetic surgery performed in Prague. The competition was held by one of a number of British firms which facilitate cosmetic surgery in the Czech Republic.
It seems BAAPS’s protest had nothing to do with a fear of losing clients to eastern European rivals. They said marketing tricks like lotteries had no place in medicine, and they would be just as strongly opposed if the prize operation were to be performed in Britain itself.
But why are the competition’s organisers and other agencies bringing their clients to Prague? For two main reasons it seems. Nips and tucks in the Czech capital cost British people around a third of what they would cost them at home. And apparently Czech plastic surgeons have acquired a reputation in the UK for professionalism. (By the way, there is quite a history of cosmetic surgery in this country: Professor Frantisek Burian, who established a chair of plastic surgery at Prague’s Charles University in 1938, is regarded as one of the fathers of modern plastic surgery.)
Cheap flights from regional centres all around the UK are also a factor: groups of beery lads on stag weekends aren’t the only beneficiaries of the budget airline boom.

[04-07-2007] By Jan Richter – Radio CZ

Prague’s famous Charles Bridge celebrates its 650th anniversary on Sunday. One of the oldest and certainly one of the most beautiful bridges in Europe, this ancient artery across the Vltava river links Prague’s Lesser Town with the Old Town on the right bank and was vital to the development of the Czech capital.

By Bruno Waterfield and Nic Fleming - Daily Telegraph 7/6/07
British hospitals are among the worst in Europe for superbugs, according to figures published yesterday.
In a league table of 29 countries only Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and Romania have higher proportions of potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant hospital-acquired infections.
Only some forms of superbugs are resistant to antibiotics - including those known as MRSA. They are part of the staphylococcus aureus family of bacteria that can live on the skin or in the nose and can cause a range of illnesses and symptoms from boils and abscesses to life-threatening diseases such as meningitis and septicaemia.
The bacteria become dangerous to patients once they enter the bloodstream and those that are resistant to antibiotics pose the greatest threat.
The European Union’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report on communicable diseases ranked countries based on the proportion of S aureus infections found to be antibiotic-resistant.
With an MRSA rate of 44 per cent, Britain was found to be the fifth worst for superbug resistance, behind countries including Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.
The ECDC study compiled data showing the trend in superbug antibiotic resistance in recent years for each country.
The amount of MRSA as a proportion of all staphylococcus aureus infections in British hospitals was unchanged between 2002 and 2005.
In contrast it fell in other countries including Slovakia, Greece and in France.Doctors fear the spread of resistance to antibiotics could lead to problems in treating other illnesses such as pneumonia.
The ECDC says the spread of hospital-acquired infections is now the main disease threat in Europe, despite continuing concerns over tuberculosis and HIV.
The report states: “If the present rapid negative development is not halted, mankind will soon lose one of its most important weapons against infectious diseases.
“The most important threat in Europe is posed by micro-organisms that have become resistant to antibiotics.”
Figures released by the Office of National Statistics in February showed the number of death certificates in England and Wales that mentioned MRSA rose 39 per cent to 1,629 between 2004 and 2005.
This is widely seen as an underestimate because other causes are often listed when MRSA could have contributed to or been the primary cause deaths. Health officials privately concede they are unlikely to hit the Government target of halving the number of MRSA cases by April.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: “With 7,000 nursing posts and 9,000 beds lost in the last year, it is little wonder that we are amongst the worst countries in Europe for rates of MRSA infections.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/08/nmrsa108.xml

By Ilya Marritz - Czech radio 23/1/07

 Information courtesy of:  http://www.justtheflight.co.uk/news/

Holidaymakers intending to step on a flight to Prague this summer might want to check out the Summer Shakespeare Festival.

Taking place between June 21st and September 14th, this mammoth event sees some of Shakespeare’s most popular plays put on at venues across the city.

Visitors to Prague will be able to take in performances such as Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest - which are not performed in English - at Prague Castle and the Lichtenstein Palace.

[23-01-2007] By Ilya Marritz

Now some economists say it’s time for the Czech Republic to fully cash in on the price advantage, and specialize in medical tourism. Tomas Sedlacek, is chief economic strategist CSOB bank, and a former advisor to President Havel.

Lately he’s been talking up the idea of medical tourism, and says there’s a great deal of interest - from people in government, from doctors, and from other economists.