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Several Roma parents have taken a drastic decision in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. Rather than send their children to a school which is being “guarded” by a right-wing paramilitary group, they are instead keeping them at home.

A corner of Prague Castle's grounds long hidden and possibly forgotten by many has been restored and opened to the public for the first time this month. The Saint Wenceslas' Vineyard and the Villa Richter, a summer house on the same site, were long closed off to the public. But now, after careful reconstruction, visitors will be able to take in a tour of the Villa and Vineyards whilst visiting Prague's world famous castle.

In just a few weeks’ time, Vietnam will see the opening of its very first beer spa, where visitors can relax in a bath of beer – Czech-style lager beer made in a new brewery built by two Czech companies at a Vietnamese beach resort. One of those firms is Pivo Praha, whose Václav Potěšil. I first asked him whether this was the first commission of its kind in Vietnam:

Hospitals and polyclinics, schools and kindergartens, trains and trams – these are some of the services Czechs had to do without for an hour on Tuesday. Between 1 and 2 pm, the Czech Republic saw a nation-wide strike against the government’s public finance reforms, one of the biggest protests in the country since the fall of communism.

The founder of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is one of the biggest names in this country’s history. And his name is not to be taken in vain – at least that’s what the Czech Industrial Property Office has told one Slovak winemaker seeking to register his products here. Alojz Masaryk has been told that his family-produced ‘Masaryk’ wine cannot be trademarked in the Czech Republic because of the symbolic value attached to the name. In response, the winemaker is considering legal action.

There have been reports that Prague’s oldest functioning railway station, Masarykovo nádraží, could disappear in a few years. City Hall is set to discuss the future of the station in the very near future, but there are already indications that the station building could be converted into a shopping centre and the land around it totally transformed.

Sunday saw one of the biggest successes ever in Czech cycling: 22-year-old Roman Kreuziger won the 10-day Tour de Suisse or Tour de Switzerland after building a commanding lead in the final time trial. It is the first time a Czech cyclist has won a Pro Tour race. The young Czech will now set his sights on the most gruelling race of all, the famous Tour de France.

The balance of forces in the lower house tipped slightly in favour of the government this weekend as another MP from the opposition Social Democrats – the fourth in the last 18 months – announced he was leaving the party. In a parliament where votes pass and fall on the tiniest of margins, the defection of MP Petr Wolf is a blow for the left-wing opposition and a boost for the government’s plans to get the planned U.S. radar base through parliament.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is one of the highlights on the Czech cultural calendar. In this, its 43rd year, the festival promises to be bigger than ever. It all kicks off in two weeks’ time in the pretty Bohemian spa town, but ahead of the grand opening, organizers held a meeting in Prague on Monday, to drop a few hints about what could be expected. I spoke to program director Julietta Sichel about what would be new at the festival this year:

Few cases have been more shocking or sickening than the Kuřim child abuse case which went to trial last week. Since it began new headlines and explicit details have followed daily, describing how Ondřej and Jakub Mauer were subjected to psychological terror and physical abuse by a number of adults, including their own mother. The sensitive nature of the case has led some, including government Minister Cyril Svoboda to criticise the presiding judge in the case for choosing to leave proceedings open.