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It came as no surprise on Wednesday but that took no edge of the news: the European Commission's issuing of a warning to the Czech Republic for not doing enough to rein in its public deficit. With an increase in expenditures the Czech Republic is set this year to miss the EU's mark of keeping the deficit below 3 percent of the GDP as part of its convergence requirements.

Health officials have been put on alert after learning that an American man who flew from Prague to Montreal last Thursday was carrying a highly dangerous strain of tuberculosis. A number of passengers on the Czech Airlines flight are to undergo medical tests to make sure they haven't become infected, although Czech officials say the chances of the infection spreading to other passengers were low.

The Czech football team are preparing for their last game before the summer, a Euro 2008 qualifier against Wales this Saturday. That match will be the end of a long season for goalkeeper Petr Cech, who underwent shoulder operations last summer and then suffered a life-threatening head injury in October. Cech made an unusually swift recovery, but despite his return Chelsea failed in their bid to win four competitions, ending up with "just" the English league and FA cups. How does Cech himself see the season?

Prague Zoo proudly announced a new arrival on Wednesday morning. A baby gorilla was born shortly after midnight, only the second gorilla ever born in captivity in the Czech Republic. Both mother and baby are healthy and Zoo staff have breathed a sigh of relief: only six weeks ago another female gave birth to a stillborn child and nearly died herself during labour.

The Czech Agrarian Chamber has announced it will stage protests next month against supermarket chains stocking the fewest Czech food products on their shelves. Unhappy about growing imports of foodstuffs, the Agrarian Chamber first plans to compare the percentage of Czech-made products in different supermarket chains and then select two with the lowest share. In late June, discontented farmers will build roadblocks outside the supermarkets to halt the delivery of goods. But that part of their plan has met with mixed reactions.

England legend Gary Lineker famously described football as a simple game in which two teams of 11 chase a ball for 90 minutes and the Germans always win. Well, here in the Czech Republic it seems it's a sport that Sparta Prague always win - they have just taken the 34th league title in their history. That said, it was far from a routine win for Sparta, with the most dramatic end to the season in many a long year.

The lord mayor of Prague Pavel Bem, who last week became the tenth Czech to conquer Mount Everest - and the first Czech politician to do so, arrived back in Prague on Monday triumphant, tanned and bearded. But not everyone was prepared to clap him on the back. Alongside the admiration of fans, Mr. Bem faced criticism for having "walked away from his job" for eight long weeks.

This week Prague plays host to the ninth annual Khamoro Roma Festival, one of the largest festivals of Roma arts and culture in Europe. For the next five days the Czech capital will reverberate to sounds from all over the world, from Macedonia's Orkestrar Strumica to the Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan. At the same time, there will be a number of discussions examining the issues facing contemporary Roma communities. Barbora Subertova is one of Khamoro's organisers.

The Czech government has decided to sue the European Commission for the first time ever. This unprecedented step comes in response to the EC's decision to give the Czech Republic a lower CO2 quota than requested. The Trade and Industry Ministry claims that the EC miscalculated the country's needs in view of its projected economic growth and is hoping to get the figure revised. But does the Czech Republic really stand any chance of winning this case?

Protestors on Saturday came out in Prague to demonstrate once again against the Czech Republic hosting a US radar base as part of a broader missile defense shield. More than 1,000 protestors took part; most were from the political left, though some were Greens who attended despite the fact that their party, a member of the ruling coalition, has tentatively backed the project.