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The Czech football league resumed after the winter break on Sunday. But the story that made the evening headlines was not who won but fan violence at a game between Brno and Ostrava. The weekend’s matches were the first under new rules stipulating that the clubs themselves - and not the country’s police force – are responsible for security. But hooligans at the game in Brno proved too much to handle for privately hired security guards and, as in the past, police in riot gear were called in.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has met with the Czech head of state Václav Klaus and other Czech officials during a two-day visit to Prague. He shared with them the Palestinian authority’s views on the current situation in the Middle East, and praised the Czech Republic’s involvement in the peace process.

French chef Marc Veyrat has earned numerous Michelin stars for his molecular cuisine, and reviews of his restaurant in Annecy, France, run in the New York Times. Now, the top chef is planning a new venture - in the middle of the Czech countryside. Veyrat plans to open an ‘eco-lodge’ serving his haute cuisine in a forest near Beroun, central Bohemia.

This weekend Prague is hosting the European Air Weapons Championships, an indoor shooting event that takes place at the city’s O2 Arena. Czech 10-m air rifle Olympic champion Kateřina Emmons, whose American husband Matthew Emmons also has an Olympic gold in his medals collection, is pregnant and not competing, though she will be in attendance. On the eve of the championships, I asked Kateřina Emmons if shooting had become more popular in the Czech Republic in the wake of her success.

Tree-lined avenues have been a distinct feature of the Czech countryside for many hundreds of years. For all their beauty and benefit however, they are also the lethal factor behind one fifth of all road deaths.

All eyes are on the northern town of Liberec at the moment for the Nordic World Ski Championships, described as the biggest sports event the Czech Republic has ever held. But the championships are attracting scrutiny of a different kind – this week the Supreme Audit Office filed criminal charges last week for fraud, loan fraud, and breach of trust.

Thursday evening sees the premiere of a Czech version of the play Performances by the Irish dramatist Brian Friel. It should be of particular interest to Czech music lovers, as Performances is based on an episode in the life of Leoš Janáček and features one of the last pieces the great composer wrote.

The Czech president Václav Klaus addressed the European Parliament on Thursday morning, in a keenly-anticipated appearance that disappointed neither the president’s critics, nor his supporters. Eurosceptic MEPs rose to their feet and applauded as Mr Klaus attacked the “democratic deficit” that he said plagued the European Union, while pro-integration parliamentarians booed, whistled, and even walked out.

The lower house of the Czech parliament approved the European Union's Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday, by a narrow margin of five votes. The treaty – aimed at reforming the EU - now goes to the upper house, where it faces stiff opposition from the main governing party, the Civic Democrats. The Czech Republic currently holds the revolving presidency of the EU, and ratifying Lisbon is proving to be politically rather awkward.

This Wednesday evening sees the start of the Nordic World Ski Championship in Liberec – the most notable sports event in the Czech Republic in 2009. Never before have the Czechs hosted the Worlds, and all eyes here will be on Czech hopefuls, most notably last year’s World Cup cross-country skiing winner Lukáš Bauer.