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The Czech Republic saw its unemployment rate jump to 7.4 percent in February, a continued rise which surpassed grim forecasts from a month ago by 0.6 percent. Some 429,000 people in the country are now out of work and the number is expected to rise further as the recession deepens.

President Václav Klaus concluded his tour of the United States on Monday during which the Czech head of state added another theme to his global agenda. Speaking at several events on the US West and East Coasts, the Czech president slammed belief in strong government, saying that the current economic downturn was a “just price” to be paid for politicians’ attempts to interfere with the free market.

Infighting within the Czech Green Party reached a head over the weekend when four rebels were expelled by the party’s national council. The move is seen as a victory of the party’s pragmatic core over a radical fraction which accused the party leadership of having betrayed voters for political gains. However some commentators say the confrontation came too late and predict that the smallest party in government will find it hard to recover.

This weekend saw the staging of the 16th annual Czech Lions – the country’s main film awards – at Prague’s Lucerna ballroom. On Saturday evening movie stars and movie directors gathered for the prestigious ceremony. Radio Prague has more on who won.

The Czech Republic saw one of the worst incidents of family-related violence in decades when a 41-year-old man shot four people dead in a bar in Petřvald, north Moravia, on Saturday night. He then attempted to shoot himself, and is now in critical condition in a city hospital. The tragedy has shocked the nation and reopened a debate on weapons possession and public safety.

The Committee of the Regions of Europe is meeting in Prague this Friday for what is the largest-scale event of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. To accompany the conference, a festival promoting the food and drink of various European regions is taking place on Prague’s Wenceslas Square. ‘Ochutnejte Evropu’ offers passers-by tasters of French wine, Belgian beer and a musical programme as well. Rosie Johnston was at the opening:

It’s instantly recognisable on Prague’s horizon, and has been subject to legal battles for several years. St Vitus Cathedral, the gothic masterpiece that towers over Prague Castle, does not belong to the Roman Catholic Church – that was the verdict reached on Thursday by the country’s Supreme Court.

Recent statistics revealed that every tenth inhabitant in the Czech capital is a foreigner. Ever since the fall of communism, the English-speaking community has been one of the strongest parts of the city’s cosmopolitan culture. This week, Christian Falvey visited the Prague Playwriting Contest, which has become a staple event of that community’s cultural calendar.

The Czech authorities recently launched a scheme to send home workers from non-EU states who lose their jobs. But members of the country’s sizable Vietnamese community say that measure is too heavy-handed. Vietnamese leaders told Interior Ministry officials this week they could support one another until the job situation improves again. However, the ministry has rejected these proposals. The head of the ministry’s asylum and migration department, Tomáš Haišman, explains why.

An unlikely war of words has erupted between the editor-in-chief of the left-leaning Právo newspaper and the opposition Social Democrats. Editor-in-chief Zdeněk Porybný claimed in an editorial published in Právo this week that he had received repeated warnings that if he continued to publish critical articles about the Social Democrats, he would see advertisers from the state sector begin to desert him.