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The Czech EU presidency has voiced its concern about alleged irregularities in last week’s Iranian elections, and has said it is ‘alarmed’ by the street violence which has ensued in the country. Back in the Czech capital, members of the Iranian community are nervous about speaking openly, but Radio Prague met Iranian journalist Omid to discuss the current situation.

EU leaders are currently meeting in Brussels for the last summit of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. Items on the agenda include the Irish government’s efforts to have the Lisbon treaty approved, and the appointment of the next European Commission head. This will be the first, and indeed last, European Council meeting chaired by the interim Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer. Ahead of the meeting, I met European Affairs Minister Stefan Fuele to ask him about the Czech delegation’s preparations for the summit, and what outcomes he would consider

Czech soldiers are serving across three continents but the fate of those missions has been up in the air since the opposition made a bargaining chip of them last winter. On Tuesday however the lower house of the Czech Parliament approved the deployment plan for 2010, prolonging the Czech presence in half a dozen countries to the relief of many.

Czech companies are complaining that they are already being hit by a credit crunch with banks reluctant to lend them money. Meanwhile, the Czech National Bank has warned that the situation could get even worse for firms and households trying to get loans or already heavily in debt.

On Friday, June 19th President Václav Klaus is due to celebrate his sixty-eighth birthday. Inside Prague Castle the celebration is likely to be dignified as befits a head of state. Outside the castle gates things are likely to be a little wilder. The president’s opponents and supporters plan it to have it out, right beneath the president’s windows.

Czech foreign minister Jan Kohout will finish chairing a two-day meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday. It is the last foreign ministers’ council with the Czechs in charge. With that in mind, just how far the Czechs have used the presidency to push their foreign policy objectives?

The East Bohemian town of Litomyšl has a lot to boast of, from its UNESCO World Heritage status to its lively year-round atmosphere. Nonetheless, what this town of 10,000 most frequently boasts of is that it is the birthplace of the composer Bedřich Smetana, and since 1949 it has been the home of a major music festival that bears his name. Now in its 60th year, Smetana's Litomyšl Festival continues to draw some of the biggest personages in classical music.

The city of Prague has decided to drop its bid to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games. City officials said on Tuesday that under the current economic circumstances, City Hall wanted to focus on mitigating the effects of the crisis. Radio Prague spoke to Alexandr Kliment of the Czech Olympic Committee to find out how they feel about the decision.

One and a half years after the Czech Republic’s entry into the border-free Schengen zone and its citizens are still falling victim to discriminatory police checks on the German side of the border, or so the Czech Interior Ministry insists. Now, the ministry is planning a system of retaliatory, tit-for-tat measures in a bid to make German police change their tack.

A rise in political extremism in the Czech Republic has been at the centre of media attention in recent weeks, and the past weekend was no exception. In the wake of the biggest ever police operation against the country’s ultra-right groups, far-right radicals took to the streets in a number of towns and cities to protest against the arrest of ten neo-Nazis.