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Jaromir Jagr, perhaps the most successful Czech ice hockey player of all time, has just taken a break from training ahead of the new season to try his hand in a new profession: acting. However, his role in a Czech Television serial shouldn't be too taxing for the megastar forward: he is playing himself.

The CzechTek saga continues to stir the usually calm waters of Czech politics in the summer season. Former president Vaclav Havel has now entered the fray, after he was asked to act as mediator between the Czech government and organisers of the techno party which was violently dispersed by riot police at the weekend. But not everyone is happy with the initiative.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the 6th instalment of JK Rowling's hugely successful series, has now been out for almost three weeks, and in Prague, as elsewhere, fans lined up in droves to get their hands on a copy. But, once again, Czech fans were divided over those able to read the English original and those who would have to wait for the official Czech translation. Jan Velinger reports on how some fans have coped.

August sees month-long summer schools in the Czech language kicking off all over the country. Students from all over the world converge in the towns of Brno, Olomouc and Prague to study intensively all things Czech. Former student Rosie Johnston follows this year's intake here in Prague.

Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has come under fire for his support of the police's intervention against CzechTek. The controversy is potentially damaging to the prime minister, who since his appointment has become the most popular politician in the country, according to a poll published last week. Tuesday is Mr Paroubek's 100th day in office, and to discuss how he has managed to make such an impact with voters I spoke to political commentator Vladimira Dvorakova.

The fallout continues from Saturday's crackdown on the CzechTek party in West Bohemia, in which 1,000 riot police dispersed thousands of techno fans with tear gas and water cannon. While politicians argue over the justification for using force, the event is now being discussed up and down the country.

Long-distance swimmer Yvetta Hlavacova has set a new Czech record for swimming the English Channel. Setting off from near Dover on Monday morning, Hlavacova completed the gruelling 21-mile swim in eight hours 42 minutes, an hour and 25 minutes short of the world record she was hoping to break. The 30-year-old said La Manche was the greatest swim of her career, but said she would have needed better weather to enter the record books:

A techno party in a field near the Czech-German border has become a minor political scandal after police in riot gear moved in at the weekend to break it up. Police said they dispersed the CzechTek festival after complaints from neighbouring landowners, but the amount of force used has been heavily criticized.

This year's Summer Film School in the Moravian town of Uherske Hradiste had a distinctly Irish theme, showing a retrospective of over 40 movies and also hosting a number of accompanying events related to the Emerald Isle. Besides Irish films, visitors to the film school could attend workshops with Irish directors such as Alan Gilsenan and concerts by well known Irish musicians like Glen Hansard.

Radio Free Europe, which many Czechs listened to surreptitiously in the Communist era, moved from Munich to Prague in the early 1990s, at the invitation of then president Vaclav Havel. Though security was stepped up at its headquarters after 9/11, Czech politicians say its current location at the top of Wenceslas Square poses a threat to the general population. Now Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has finally found a new, safer location - in a new building in the Prague 10 district of Hagibor.