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A prominent Czech children's charity is facing charges for breaching data protection laws. On its website, the Fund for Children in Need publishes details of abandoned children for whom it would like to find a home. The Czech data protection office says that with such sensitive information being made openly available, these children could fall victim to bullying at school, or even pedophiles. The charity vehemently disagrees, and calls the charges ‘shocking’.

Moscow has offered Washington an unexpected olive branch on US missile defence, on Wednesday backing out of plans to deploy short-range missiles in Kaliningrad. The threat that it would do so was made in response to planned US missile defence systems in the Czech Republic and Poland, but Russia has apparently suspended the idea in favour of a more constructive dialogue with the US. Prague was quick to welcome the move.

Scientists in the Czech city of České Budějovice say they have discovered a protein that may reduce the appetite of ticks for human blood. Ticks have become an increasing problem in the summer months, and can carry Lyme’s disease as well as encephalitis, both of which can prove very dangerous to human health. Dominik Jůn has the story:

The Czech national sport may be hockey, but in recent years, Czechs are fast gaining a reputation in mushing, or dog sled racing. Czech musher Radek Havrda and his pack of 23 dogs have just won the toughest dog sled race in Europe, La Grande Odyssee, which takes place in the French Alps.

Smaller parties in the Czech Republic are already gearing up for this year’s elections to the European Parliament, anxious to reach voters even though the elections only take place in June. Recent headlines have focussed on largely eurosceptical parties questioning further European integration (especially the Lisbon treaty), but other parties are focussing on the exact opposite – closer cooperation within the EU. One such party, the European Democratic Party founded by MEP Jana Hybášková last November, outlined its goals on Wednesday.

Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Prague, with millions of people visiting the Czech capital every year. One important element of the business is “convention tourism”, when visitors come to attend conferences, seminars and trade fairs. The Prague Convention Bureau promotes congress tourism in the city – I discussed its activities with marketing manager Andrea Libová.

The National Security Office has fined the Foreign Ministry over the leak of a transcript of an official conversation between the Czech prime minister Mirek Topolánek and the French president Nicholas Sarkozy. The transcript, which contained some rather undiplomatic language, caused a minor sensation and prompted an apology from Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

On Monday the government backed wide-ranging reforms in the education sector, which could radically change how universities in the country are run. Among the most marked proposals: the introduction of student tuition fees, offset by a new system of student loans. The idea? To improve the quality of education students can expect while helping them get on their own two feet. But not everyone, so far, is happy: critics of the reforms say there are grey areas that have been left unaddressed.

The Czech Republic has been marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which comes on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in occupied Poland. Numerous events have been taking place across the country and in Prague in particular. Dominik Jůn spoke with Zuzana Tlášková of the Jewish Museum in Prague to find out more.

On January 29, the Prague Playhouse – a Prague-based theatre company that specializes in English-language productions is set to debut a brief run of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross. Dominik Jun caught up with the Playhouse’s artistic director Brian Caspe to find out more and began by asking him to tell us a little more about the Prague Playhouse: