Daily news summary

Damaged Chinese flags on road from airport removed

Czech and Chinese flags placed on the route from Prague Airport ahead of a visit Monday by China's President Xi Yingpin have been taken down. Around 50 Chinese flags were vandalised on Friday night and former minister Jaroslav Tvrdík of the Czech-Chinese Mixed Chamber for Mutual Cooperation, which is behind them, said the flags had been removed for repair and would be put back up, iDnes.cz reported on Sunday. The spokesman of Czech President Miloš Zeman said on Saturday that political and moral responsibility for the damage lay with the TOP 09 major of Prague 6, who said he sympathised with such actions.

CzechTourism: Over 350,000 Chinese visitors expected in 2016

Over 350,000 Chinese tourists could visit the Czech Republic in 2016, according to the state agency CzechTourism. Last year the figure was 285,000. Most visitors from China enter this country from another European state. However, the number arriving by air last year reached 50,000, a year-on-year jump of nearly 50 percent that followed the introduction of direct flights between the two countries.

Average age of Czech population grows by over 5.5 years in quarter century

The average age of inhabitants of the Czech Republic has risen by five years and seven months to 42 since 1990, the year after the fall of communism, according to figures just released by the Czech Statistics Office. While in 1990 there were 1.3 million people in what is now the Czech Republic aged 65 or more, last year that figure was 1.9 million. There are also fewer children in the country: last year there were 1.6 million, compared to 2.2 million a quarter of a century ago.

New lower house committee to have increased oversight over secret services

A new lower house committee is to oversee the work of the Czech secret services, Czech Television reported. Unlike the current committee, which is responsible for the BIS intelligence service and the military intelligence service, the new body's members will be able to look into current case files, the station said. MPs on the new body will also oversee a third service, the Office for Foreign Relations and Information. There is broad support for the expansion of powers in the Chamber of Deputies, Czech Television said.

Above-average temperatures expected in next four weeks

Temperatures in the Czech Republic should be above-average for the time of year in the next four weeks, according to a regularly monthly weather forecast issued by the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute. On some days the temperature will exceed 20 degrees Celsius, they said. Rainfall levels over the next four weeks should be below the average for the time of year.

Veteran theatre actor Zindulka receives lifetime achievement Thálie

Actor Stanislav Zindulka has received a prestigious Thálie award for lifelong excellence as a theatre actor. Mr. Zindulka, who is now 83, said at Saturday night's awards ceremony at the National Theatre that his most important act in the theatre had been to quit the relative security of an engagement in Brno when he was 57 for the uncertainty of working in Prague, where he is a long-term member of leading theatre Činoherní klub.

Czechs Jágr and Hudler score for Florida in derby win over Tampa Bay

The Czech players Jaromír Jágr and Jiří Hudler both scored for Florida Panthers on Saturday night in the club's 5:2 win over local rivals Tampa Bay Lightning. Jágr also notched up an assist. The 44-year-old's goal was his 25th of the season and he is the highest-scoring and most productive Czech in the NHL so far this season. Jágr has two more points than David Krejčí, whose two assists for Boston on Saturday in a 3:1 win over Toronto helped end a five-game losing streak.