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Malostranská beseda – the former town hall of Prague’s historic Lesser Town is slowly but surely undergoing renovation that, once complete, will see the building restored to its original splendour. On Sunday, the last of three replicas of the building’s original towers was put back into place.

Could trams be reintroduced to Prague’s Wenceslas Square? The capital’s public transport authority would like to bring them back, after an absence of nearly 30 years. They say the extension would take the strain off other parts of the city’s transport network. But not everyone is for the idea. Prague City Hall stands adamantly opposed, saying trams are at odds with its plans to redesign the space as a pedestrian zone.

The Czech counter-intelligence service has said Russian spies are trying to stir up public opposition to a planned U.S. radar base to be built on Czech soil. In its annual report, the agency claimed Russian intelligence activity in the Czech Republic had reached fever pitch, and suggested the wider aim could be to weaken NATO and isolate the United States.

A memorial was held in Prague on Thursday for the legendary inter-war footballer Josef Bican, recognised as one of the greatest goal-scorers in the history of world soccer. Bican was born in Vienna and actually played for Austria before moving to Prague and representing Czechoslovakia.

The art collection of Emil Freund, a Prague Jewish lawyer who was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, will return to his heirs in the United States. After the Jewish Museum in Prague traced Emil Freund’s relatives in 2001, it took them seven long years to clear the way for restitution. But part of the collection is to stay in the Czech Republic – the Czech authorities declared some of the paintings a national heritage which means that they cannot leave the country.

The Czech government has already caused a stir with a recent PR campaign for the country’s forthcoming EU presidency, which starts in January. TV and newspaper adverts suggesting that Europe will be ‘given a taste of its own medicine’ when the Czechs take over have left the international press asking what exactly Prague is trying to say about the political institution it is about to lead. Now, the government has unveiled another of its strategies to publicise the presidency which seems no less controversial. A ‘Totalitarian Circus’ is set to represent

Czech arms exporters are preparing a lawsuit against the German government over transit licence permits required by the German authorities for all arms shipments through Germany. Czech exporters are complaining that the authorization – which is often denied – complicates weapon exports approved by the Czech government, and is a relict of the Cold War.

New proposals by the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek will see the Czech national anthem being spruced up in time for a national holiday on September 28 - the day of Czech statehood. The changes are supposed to gently update the anthem and make it more “noble” and appropriate for the modern age.

Two Czech soldiers, who were injured in Monday’s attack on the Czech Provincial and Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, arrived in Prague on Wednesday. The rocket attack by Afghan insurgents has been the third since the second army contingentwas deployed in the Afghan province of Logar, and the security situation in Afghanistan is further deteriorating.

Three weeks ahead of local and Senate elections the Czech political scene is fraught with discord. The Civic Democrats, the strongest party in the Czech governing coalition, has been hard hit by a blackmail and entrapment scandal involving two of its deputies. Last weekend brought another bombshell – the daily Mladá fronta Dnes alleged that two Civic Democrats – rebel deputy Vlastimil Tlustý and Interior Minister Ivan Langer as well as opposition leader Jiří Paroubek of the Social Democrats had in the past been in contact with the mafia, publishing