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For several years a battle over a piece of farmland has stopped a strategic Czech motorway project in its tracks. On Monday the government decided to remove that obstacle with the radical step of expropriation. We look at that controversial step and whether it will bear fruit.

The Czech Republic’s ice hockey players have scored a victory that will live long in the memory, taking gold at the World Championship on Sunday night after a thrilling final win over Russia. A Czech squad featuring several relatively unknown players defied the odds to take the trophy – sending fans around the Czech Republic into ecstasy.

Europe’s oldest secondary glass making school, located in the north Bohemian town of Kamenický Šenov, is facing existential problems. To make sure that the school, which first opened in 1856, survives the next school year, a group of supporters on Monday launched a public campaign to raise some 500,000 crowns to tide it over. Radio Prague spoke to the school’s director, František Janák, to find out what’s at the root of the school’s financial difficulties.

With four days still to go before Czechs start voting in elections to the lower house, the last opinion poll has come out. But the political parties and their leaders still hope to sway some of those wavering or undecided voters with final rallies and debates still to come.

There were scenes of euphoria in Cologne on Thursday evening, as the Czech ice hockey team overcame Finland in a tense penalty shootout. The win represented a real breakthrough for the Czechs, who had previously been knocked out at the quarter-final stage at the World Championship four years in a row. They now face Sweden for a place in the final.

Gaming machine bars – known as hernas – are an extremely common sight in the Czech Republic. But now, under legislation approved by the Senate on Thursday, many could disappear from the country’s towns and cities. However, critics say the change will hit theatres and other organisations that currently receive funding that local authorities have raised from gambling.

Originally a communist version of popular Western drinks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the Czech product Kofola is celebrating 50 years of existence this year. When the communist regime fell in 1989 and foreign brands entered the market, there was less demand for this domestic soft drink. However, in recent years Kofola has been enjoying renewed popularity. Sarah Borufka has more.

In June 2009, during the Czech Republic’s EU presidency, 46 countries pledged to provide assistance to Holocaust survivors, to accelerate the restitution of property stolen during the Holocaust, and to set up a special institute to pursue these commitments. The special advisor to the US secretary of state for Holocaust-era assets, Stuart Eizenstat, is back in Prague this week checking on developments.

After torrential rains caused flooding in parts of Moravia this week, water levels have started to go down. But now the hard part begins: assessing the cost of the damage, as well as beginning the clean-up and recovery. Parts of Moravia are still in danger of mudslides and several homes have either been destroyed or face demolition. Local officials expect that repairs will cost billions of crowns.

After his images of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia flashed around the world in 1968, Josef Koudelka went on to become one of the greatest photo-journalists of our time. Now in his early 70s, he has just received an award for promoting the good name of Czech culture. At the same time, Koudelka has presented some of his most important works to a Prague museum.