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Monday marked the return of one of the Czech Republic's greatest sporting heroines, as Katerina Neumannova, the holder of the country's only gold medal in the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, finally arrived back in Prague. Much excitement surrounded her homecoming, with Neumannova, who undoubtedly provided the jewel in the crown for this year's Czech Olympic team, having achieved both silver in the Women's 15km pursuit and gold in the Women's 30km cross country skiing events. Chris Jarrett spoke to Neumannova about her recent success and plans for the

The wife of Social Democrat Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, Zuzana Paroubkova, says that she is willing to participate in the upcoming election campaign. If she does, she won't be alone: the head of the main opposition party, the Civic Democrats, has already made it clear his wife will appear with him on billboards around the country. But why have the two leaders hit upon this kind of campaign, which doesn't have much precedent in the Czech Republic?

The Czech Republic and Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has just been named Czech Footballer of the Year for the first time. The award is the latest in a very impressive series of records and other achievements for Cech, who is still only 23. Like the rest of the Czech squad he is currently in Prague preparing for a friendly against Turkey on Wednesday. Before the game, and before Monday's Footballer of the Year awards, I asked Petr Cech how much - with three months till kick-off - this summer's World Cup is on his mind.

On Friday, some 10,000 healthcare workers rallied in Prague to protest against the policies of Health Minister David Rath. Private practitioners, dentists, pharmacists and patients' associations protested against the minister's radical reforms which they say are proving destructive for the system and dangerous for patients. Over 100,000 people signed a petition demanding David Rath's dismissal. Minister Rath belittled the protest as mere pre-election propaganda of the opposition Civic Democrats. Meanwhile, amid growing problems in the sector and

Featuring the lives of a group of young friends who live in a shabby housing development in a poor industrial region in Bohemia, Bohdan Slama's film "Stesti" or "Something Like Happiness" has received broad critical acclaim both at home and abroad. On Saturday, it clinched seven prizes at the Czech Lion Awards (Cesky Lev) - the country's own national version of the Oscars.

Since the fall of communism the number of divorces in the Czech Republic has increased by a third and statisticians predict the number will increase even further. Divorce proceedings are a considerable burden for the Czech Republic's overstrained court system and that's why the Czech Union of Judges would like to make divorces much simpler and quicker.

Health minister David Rath's radical reforms have divided the health sector—hundreds of general practitioners, specialists, dentists and pharmacists are demanding his dismissal. They claim that his radical efforts to reform the sector have proved destructive for the system and dangerous for patients. Others feel that the minister has finally managed to stem the money drain from the sector and has successfully addressed long-standing problems.

People around the Czech Republic stayed up late on Wednesday night to cheer on the Czech ice hockey team, who - in an intriguing twist of fate - faced former federal partners Slovakia in the quarter-finals at the Winter Olympics in Turin. All the disappointment with the Czech Republic's poor results in the group stage were forgotten on Wednesday, as the Czech team finally gelled and won 3:1 to reach the semi-finals.

Controversial British historian David Irving has featured heavily in the world's media this week after being convicted in Austria for denying the Holocaust. The trial was based on Mr Irving's book "Hitler's War", in which the author claims that Hitler knew nothing of the Holocaust and Auschwitz was not an extermination camp. But Czech translations of David Irving's books are also widely available in this country - where Holocaust denial is a crime.

The role of the wartime Prime Minister Alois Elias in resisting the Nazi occupation has always been considered an ambiguous one. While the stance of the Protectorate government at the time was without doubt collaborationist, Elias himself still tried to uphold the integrity of the Czech people. Now new evidence has emerged showing his involvement in a plot to assassinate a number of prominent Nazi journalists, making it increasingly clear that Elias was anything but a traitor.