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A small chartered plane flying from the Czech Republic to Kiev crashed near the Ukrainian capital on Sunday just five minutes away from its destination. It was carrying five people – all of them Czech nationals – and everyone on board was killed.

The film Once was made on a budget of 160,000 USD and has been one of the surprise hits of 2007. In America alone, it has taken over 10 million dollars at the box-office. The tale of an Irish busker and the relationship he forges with a Czech immigrant in Dublin has won critical acclaim – and now a couple of Grammy nominations as well for its soundtrack. Marketa Irglova, the Czech female lead who composed some of the songs, stands the chance of becoming the nation’s first ever pop musician to win such a prestigious award.

Packed parking lots, packed stores: that’s the situation in most Prague shopping malls these days in the final weeks before Christmas. According to reports, Czechs are spending more than ever: economists are predicting that this holiday season Czechs will plonk down record amounts, a rise in the billions.

On Thursday, 11 members of the environmental organisation Greenpeace set up camp halfway up one of the chimneys at the Prunerov power plant in northern Bohemia. The group originally planned to camp out on the chimney until Saturday, protesting against the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the plant. But on Friday afternoon, they were forced to abandon their protest due to bad weather. While they were up there, Radio Prague gave them a call to ask them about the protest. So here, from the dizzying height of 70m, speaking earlier today, is Jan

Cases of children caught up in messy divorces abound, but none has shocked the nation so profoundly as that of ten year old Tereza Smutna. After eight years of court battles over custody rights in which neither parent was prepared to give way the child was sent to a mental institution – not because of any health problems but to isolate her from mother. The “therapy” failed and now Tereza’s fate is once again hanging in the balance.

Wednesday the centre right government of Mirek Topolanek celebrated a double triumph – it survived a motion of no-confidence initiated by the opposition parties and pushed through the 2008 state budget. Despite its fragile majority in the lower house the government appears to have a firm hold on the reins of power, but now the political ambitions of one man are threatening to destroy its unity.

Na Zemi (On the Ground, On the Earth) is the name of a shop which has just opened on Prague’s Belehradska Street. The owners say it is the first store in the Czech capital specialising in fair trade foodstuffs, for which growers in the developing world are guaranteed a reasonable price for their crops. The new shop is run by an NGO called Society for Fair Trade and Development Education. I spoke to the group’s Tomas Bily, who is also the manager of Na Zemi.

They fought against the Nazis but were treated as enemies in Czechoslovakia after the war: that is the starting point for “Forgotten Heroes” a travelling exhibition in the Czech Republic mapping the story of ethnic Sudeten Germans who fought against the Nazis. Despite their resistance to Hitler in World War II, many still suffered persecution in Czechoslovakia after the end of the war.

On Tuesday, Prague City Hall unveiled new plans to banish prostitution from the capital’s streets. As of January 2008, prostitutes caught offering their services in Prague’s public spaces could face weighty fines, and will be banned from the area. But women’s groups have asked whether the City Hall’s new decree goes far enough.

A record theft of 560 million crowns (the equivalent of around 31 million US dollars) took place in Prague on Saturday, the highest sum of money ever stolen in the Czech Republic. The police have launched a hunt for a security agency employee suspected of stealing the cash form his company’s safe. A Czech betting agency has offered odds on whether or not the culprit will be caught.