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The Beijing Olympics were generally regarded as one of the most spectacular in recent times, and were praised by the president of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge as ‘truly exceptional’. But were they perhaps a bit too spectacular – raising the bar so high that cities with more modest bids, such as Prague, can never hope to succeed?

The trial of two Czech entomologists – detained near Darjeeling, India in June for the alleged smuggling of rare insects – has gotten underway in India. 51-year-old Petr Švácha, a respected scientist both at home and internationally, and his colleague Emil Kučera, 52, spent a month in prison and now a month released on bail before their case reached trial. Both have denied any wrong-doing, including recent reports they had admitted to the charges of smuggling – which carry sentences between two to seven years in prison. Recent reports revealed

Czech long-distance swimmer David Čech has succeeded in swimming the Strait of Gibraltar both ways, becoming the fifth person in the world and the first Czech to do so. He also managed to cross the first half of his journey, from Spain to Morocco, in the record time of 2 hours and 38 minutes. I asked David Čech to tell me all about it:

It started as a dispute over the distribution of tax revenues. It ended up as a rather interesting sociological experiment. Mayors of small towns and villages have long complained that far too much tax-payers’ money ends up in the capital Prague, and far too little ends up in their own municipalities. So to see how the other half lives, the mayor of Prague and the mayor of Suchá Loz – a village in southeast Moravia – are swapping jobs.

Soviet propaganda described the invasion of Czechoslovakia as “brotherly help” to a nation threatened by “counter-revolutionary forces”, and the Warsaw Pact forces that occupied the country in August 1968 came from Russia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. But not all the citizens of those countries agreed with the invasion, and several of them risked their lives to protest against Moscow’s crackdown. On Thursday, nine of them received medals in gratitude from Czech prime minister Mirek Topolánek.

The Czech investment and construction company Ross Holding has announced plans to build and operate a new brewery in Chotěboř near Havlíčkův Brod, with a yearly output of 10 to 25 thousand hectolitres. The new facility will be the first brewery built from scratch since the establishment of Radegast in the 1970s. If everything goes according to plan, production of the new Czech beer brand should start next summer.

The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia resulted in a permanent Soviet military presence on Czech soil. Between 1968 and 1991 –when the last of the Soviet troops finally left the country – they operated in 73 localities. The environmental damage they caused is taking years to repair and has already cost billions of crowns. Jakub Kašpar is a spokesman for the Czech Environment Ministry:

August 21st, 2008 marks 40 years since Warsaw pact troops moved into Czechoslovakia, crushing the reform movement known as the Prague Spring. The invasion shocked many Czechs who came to the defence of the Czechoslovak Radio building (now Czech Radio) on Vinohradská Street. Dominik Jun was there in the run up to the commemoration and filed this report.

Exhibitions have been taking place all over Prague recently to commemorate the Warsaw-Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. But perhaps the biggest of all the displays was unveiled on Thursday, exactly 40 years after the Soviet tanks rolled in. ‘… And the tanks arrived’ sees Prague’s National Museum – to this day a symbol of the occupation – returned to the way it looked in 1968. For one month only, a 1960’s-style kiosk, vintage cars, and of course, a Soviet tank stand outside the museum.

On Tuesday, a special NATO summit designed to address the current crisis in Georgia, concluded with strong statements directed towards Russia. The current crisis appears to have solidified concerns that Russia is becoming a potentially dangerous re-emerging power. Eastern European countries, wary of past experiences have been particularly tough in their rhetoric against Russia, and now, a controversial defence shield located in Poland and the Czech Republic seems more certain as a result of the conflict. Dominik Jun spoke with Oldřich Bureš, a