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Otakar Motejl, the Czech Republic's ombudsman or public defender of rights, was elected for a second term of office on Tuesday, and will hold the post for the next six years. Mr Motejl is the country's first ombudsman - the office has only existed since 2000 - and going by its high approval ratings Czechs seem to think he's doing a good job.

The Technical University of Liberec has announced it is opening two branches in Vietnam. It's thought to be the very first time a Czech University has set up campuses abroad. Petr Louda, dean of the Mechanical Faculty, explained how the plans came about.

"Aby deti vedely" -or "so that children know" is an EU funded project that aims to teach fourteen and fifteen-year olds about human rights. The idea is not new - what makes it special is that it aims to break with the old practice of memorizing a text, instead encouraging children to talk about various aspects of human rights, and help them to understand the lessons to be learnt from the past.

Prague's Gender Studies Center is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Founded in the heady ideological tumult following the Velvet Revolution, the group has grown into a major advocacy organization for women and sexual minorities.

This week Prague's famous Barrandov film studios opened a brand new soundstage that is reportedly the most ambitious investment by the studio in decades. Named "Max" for its massive size, the new stage was built to attract bigger international productions to Prague.

Numerous newspapers and magazines serve the Czech community in the United States, from "nationwide" publications such as Americke listy to regional titles like Czech Nebraska. There are also several internet websites and email newsletters, such as the weekly Dumpling News; it is produced by Zora Pergl, a woman of Czech descent based in Florida. I asked her how Dumpling News has been received since its launch in April last year.

The Czech Statistical Office has just released a new report on the number of foreign citizens living in the Czech Republic. Its most recent figures show there are over 300,000 foreign nationals with permanent residence in this country. At the end of last year, they accounted for some 2.5 percent of the overall population. Although compared to other EU countries the share is relatively small, it keeps growing steadily.

This Saturday, leading artists gathered at Prague's State Opera to receive and present the Cesky Slavik - Czech Nightingale - music awards. The event was hosted by celebrity radio presenters Milos Pokorny and Roman Ondracek. Among the winners: thirteen year old Ewa Farna from Ostrava, who was voted best newcomer of the year. Dita Asiedu has more on who got what:

The Christian Democratic Party has a new leader. He is the controversial mayor of Vsetin, Senator Jiri Cunek - a man whom some see as a racist and others as a pragmatic, down to earth politician who could bring the Christian Democrats out of a rut. But who is Jiri Cunek and can he really turn around the party's fortunes?

When the mayor of Vsetin Jiri Cunek evicted several hundred Romany rent-defaulters from their homes and moved them to a complex of portacabins on the outskirts of town several weeks ago he set off a storm of controversy. Some called him a racist, others applauded his courage in addressing a long-standing problem. On Thursday the Senate's Human Rights Commission set out to investigate the matter - and concluded that the mayor had made the right decision.