In the spirit of cooperation...

The Prague Post reported today that the Czech president supports the idea of placing a United States missile defense site somewhere inside the country and is on his way to America to discuss where it's to be located with President Bush. Although the NATO alliance may be losing its relevancy in a post-9/11 world, the common ties that have bound Europe and North America since the start of the Cold War are showing themselves again in this relatively complex and contentious plan. Even the players are the same: the United States and Russia find themselves facing off over a perennial Soviet-era bone of contention, nuclear proliferation. Feels like it's 1962 all over again, doesn't it?

Labor troubles

Czech-owned carmaker Skoda is becoming more and more popular throughout the E.U. what with the relaxed trade regulations that come along with membership, but the late-breaking little scandal that's embarassed the company provides proof that the Union's borders haven't quite disappeared yet. The Prague Post describes what's going on here.

http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/02/06/zetka-caught-exploiting-polish-auto-workers.php

We don't all speak Czech

The Czech Republic might be sweet as sugar, but it's a little on the small side and doesn't have the most far-flung diaspora of native speakers (or secondary speakers for that matter), so I thought it might make sense to put up some links to English-language media sources within and without the country.

http://www.praguepost.com/index.php

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/ N.B. a good amount of Czech here too

http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ejs322/czech.html (sort of a mixed bag)