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After one of the longest winters on record, weather is again the source of problems in the Czech Republic. The brutal cold finally gave way to warmer temperatures this week, bringing record high temperatures on Monday. However, this dramatic change has led to high water levels in many areas of the Czech Republic, including Prague, where the devastating 2002 floods are still fresh in people's minds.

The Czech Republic lost one of the more colourful candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary elections this week, after the Christian Democrats announced that former football manager Frantisek Straka would not be standing for the party in June. Mr Straka, former player and manager at the country's biggest club Sparta Prague, has been withdrawn from the list of candidates after alleged problems over his citizenship.

There is now no doubt at all regarding the incidence of the deadly bird flu in the Czech Republic. Czech tests on a dead swan found in the Vltava River in the south of the country indicate that the bird died of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. Meanwhile a second swan sent in for testing a few hours later was found to be infected with the H5 virus, most likely also the H5N1.

Experts said it was only a matter of time and they were right. After bird flu had been reported in all of its neighbours, on Monday the Czech Republic finally detected its first case of avian flu in its H5 form in a dead swan. While further tests are being carried out to prove whether the bird was infected with the aggressive H5N1 variety, special measures have come into effect in the area where the dead bird was found.

Last month it came to light that Tesco, the owner of the original Maj building in the centre of Prague, was considering demolishing the famous department store in favour of a newer building. Maj, in its original form, has stood on the corner of Narodni and Spalena Streets since 1975 - and then - as now - is one of Prague's best-known shopping centres. Consequently, many Czechs - but also a number of important architects- say it would be a mistake if the building were pulled down.

The biggest investment in the history of the Czech state has finally been agreed: after several months of negotiation, the South Korean carmaker Hyundai announced on Monday that it is going to invest up to 1.2 billion US dollars in a giant plant in north Moravia, providing thousands of much-need jobs.

In October last year, an explicit ban on the propagation of Nazism and Communism was proposed by the upper house of Czech parliament, intended to force the Communist Party to distance itself from its past. The amendment to the penal code was rejected earlier this month by the Chamber of Deputies, where Communist and Social Democrat deputies hold a majority, but its authors said they would resubmit it if the balance of power changed after the elections. Now, a group of senators, led by Martin Mejstrik and Jaromir Stetina, want to propose a new law,

As the EU called for the immediate release of Belarus opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin, the Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek condemned the use of force against crowds protesting against the results of the recent presidential elections. Mr Paroubek also said the Czech foreign ministry was considering concrete ways of supporting those arrested in the crackdown against demonstrators. Rob Cameron has this report.

The Czech Republic has detected its first case of bird flu in a swan. Veterinary tests showed the presence of the H5 virus although it will not be clear until Wednesday whether it was the deadly H5N1 variety, which is dangerous to human beings.

The veteran politician, doctor and literary translator Jaroslava Moserova passed away in the early hours of Friday morning after a long illness. She was 76. Jaroslava Moserova was best known in recent years as a senator, but she also served as an ambassador to Australia, and was also a leading burns specialist - she was the first doctor to treat Jan Palach, the Czech student who set himself alight on Wenceslas Square. Rob Cameron has this look back on a life lived very much to the full.