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The Czech daily Právo on Monday reported that used-car dealers have been feeling the crunch of the continuing economic crisis. Overall, sales of cars (both new and old) in the country have slumped, and those still in the market for a new vehicle now appear more likely to buy new smaller vehicles than a used car for about the same price.

There’s usually at least one big news story that breaks the torpid waters of the so-called “cucumber” or silly season, that time of year when Czech editors and reporters are desperate for stories because the country’s political and social elite are all off on holiday. Well, this year, ironically, the holiday is the story – the holiday taken by Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek at a villa in Tuscany. So what’s so controversial about it?

Pavel Nedvěd has just picked up the Golden Ball award for Czech footballer of the season, a prize decided by sports journalists. The 2008-2009 season was Nedvěd’s last: he retired after his final game for Juventus in May. But has he really hung up his boots? The veteran midfielder says he is still mulling over his future – and even hinted on Thursday that he could play for the Czech national team again.

Engineering students at Prague’s ČVUT – the Czech Technical University – are completing testing on a single-seater racing car they built together over endless hours over the last 18 months. Next week, their efforts will come to fruition: the car will compete in Germany’s Formula Student - a competition gauging the overall quality of design, engineering and performance.

The peaceable Czechs don’t seem like a nation of trigger-happy gun-lovers, but there are actually 650,000 registered gun-owners in this country, and perhaps as many as another half a million who own weapons illegally - that’s a lot for a nation of 10 million people. Police say that more than 6,000 unlicensed guns have so far been handed in in an amnesty that comes to an end at midnight on Friday.

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the Czech Republic has almost doubled in the last few days with the total climbing to over 70. The Ministry of Health is meanwhile boosting its preparations for a worse case scenario. There are fears that a much a more virulent and serious form of swine flu could spread during the autumn.

Josef Lesák, a leader of the student resistance to the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, has passed away at the age of 88. Lesák was also the youngest deputy in the country’s parliament when the Communists seized power – and became the first MP they put in prison.

Beer is one of the Czech Republic’s best-known products and a reason why thousands of tourists flock to this country each year. Now, parched holidaymakers can navigate their way around the country’s breweries using a new beer map. I met the man behind the ‘Breweries of the Czech Republic’ map, cartographer Jan Ptáček, and asked him why he had swapped his usual production of school atlases and hiking maps for beer:

Prague has become the focus of attention for hundreds of Romanians as they follow the fight for life of a 17-year old boy. Many have travelled to the Czech capital to be nearer the hospital where he is being cared for and have set up camp at sites around the city.

This Wednesday sees the Prague Proms Music festival continue in the Czech capital at the Obecní Dům - a very special evening with world-famous conductor and composer Carl Davis. Mr Davis, who has composed hundreds of scores for TV and film, including the series Pride & Prejudice and The French Lieutenant’s Woman, will be conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, performing scores from the James Bond films – from Casino Royale to Live and Let Die.