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It has become something of a tradition every autumn for game lovers in Prague to match wits in at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad. The event, which draws hundreds of players, is held at Tyrsuv Dum, a stately palace in the city's Mala Strana (Lesser Quarter). This year visitors will even have the chance to try a number of new Czech releases.

Excessive red-tape and arrogant civil servants have long been a problem in the Czech Republic. A recent study conducted by the Prague-based Westminster Agency indicated that little has changed in this respect in the last 18 years. The agency says that it is not the performance of civil servants that's at the core of the problem - it is their attitude and the fact that little has been done to change it.

As China's economy goes from strength to strength, the country is also making great efforts to promote its language and culture across the world. In just three years, China has opened branches of its Confucius Institute in over 70 countries around the world. The first Confucius Institute in the Czech Republic was opened on Wednesday at Palacky University in Olomouc. I spoke to the head of the centre David Uher and started by asking him whether it was the university's own initiative or whether it was the Chinese who approached them.

The Chamber of Deputies stripped Communist MP Josef Vondruska of immunity on Wednesday. Mr Vondruska will now face criminal charges in connection with his job as a prison guard in 1980s. Several political prisoners who served their jail time under Mr. Vondruska have accused him of brutality and abuse of power. The case will now be investigated by the police and Mr Vondruska could go to prison for up to ten years.

For some time now officials in Brussels have criticized the Czech Republic for a lack of know-how when it comes to drawing on EU funds. Belated or botched applications could cost the country millions of euros in lost funds, paralyzing important research and development programmes. The first head rolled on Tuesday, when Education Minister Dana Kuchtova announced she was resigning in connection with a poorly drafted bid for EU funding.

Next February the Czech Republic is set to choose a new president. Both houses of the country's parliament will take part in a secret vote to decide if Vaclav Klaus remains in office, or if the country gets a new president. But will that be the last such vote? The idea of a direct vote by the public has been discussed many times over the years. What are the chances of that becoming reality any time soon? Direct presidential elections was the subject of a debate at the Senate on Wednesday.

It may sound hard to believe, but a Czech neo-Nazi group has acquired a permit to hold a march through Prague's historic Jewish quarter. What's really incredible is the date the far-right group's demonstration is set to take place: the anniversary of the notorious Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht. And to cap it all, the Prague Town Hall seems to have no legal means of stopping the march.

The Czech prime minister's rocky relationship with the media reached a head on Monday. At an emotionally charged news briefing, Mirek Topolanek lashed out at journalists, accusing them of bias, betrayal and corrupt practices. He even went so far as to call for a law which would regulate press freedom.

Ever since he painted a Soviet tank pink in 1991, David Cerny has remained one of the Czech Republic's more daring and innovative artists, whose work continues to provoke. His work - including enormous babies scaling the city's TV tower - can be seen in and around Prague but also abroad. Last week a new piece titled "Metalmorphosis" was unveiled in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the US. The event was attended by Czech and US representatives, as well as the seminal Czech underground band the Plastic People of the Universe.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus took the opportunity to discuss one of his favourite topics on Monday, when he spoke at the first ever conference on climate change at the United Nations. For some time now Mr Klaus has been challenging received wisdom on global warming, saying mankind is not to blame for rises in temperature, and downplaying both the extent and impact of such increases. But the president's speech in New York was notable for the absence of the fiery language with which he has previously attacked environmentalists.