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Sir Nicholas Winton – the British man who helped save 669 Czechoslovak Jewish children from the Nazis in 1939 – will receive a telegram from the Queen on Tuesday to mark his 100th birthday. As well as the traditional reunion with those “Winton children” who settled in Britain after the war, there were a number of events in the Czech Republic to mark his centenary.

Slavia Prague have won the Czech football league for the second time in a row, after beating Viktoria Žižkov on Monday evening. For decades they have had been accused of being věčně druhý (forever second), overshadowed by the country’s richest club, Sparta Prague. So do Slavia’s two titles in two seasons represent a real power shift in Czech football?

The country’s new prime minister, Jan Fischer, has revealed that his government is now close to releasing its official policy statement, with the government due to hammer out final details this week. Regardless, two major focuses of the new government are already obvious: preparing a tight state budget for 2010, and successfully completing the Czech EU presidency.

The interim Czech government is pushing ahead with a tender for the biggest environmental clean-up operation in the country’s history – removing environmental damage inflicted during decades of communist rule. The tender is worth 115 billion crowns and cabinet officials say it is an effective way of dealing with a burden the state had promised to remove. But experts as well as anti-corruption organizations are concerned that the state could end up paying much more than necessary.

Czech animator Jan Balej’s knack for pulling off unsuspected blockbusters has made him one of the most prominent figures in the animation industry in the Czech Republic. Now the winner of two Czech Lions and numerous foreign awards is turning his attention to Hans Christian Andersen, and has received a record subsidy to promote his effort.

Some 23,000 union members from several countries descended on Prague on Saturday to protest against steps taken by the former Czech government to tackle the economic crisis. Parallel events took place in Madrid, Brussels and Berlin. The unions have warned that more protests will follow, if governments, including the Czech Republic’s, fail to listen.

The Czech National Bank has just issued a statement saying its banknotes may not be used for advertising purposes. That may seem obvious, so why spell it out? Well, because one Czech company is currently offering on its website “a unique way of promoting your company: ads on banknotes”. It’s a Czech invention, say Vedici, who are based in Pelhřimov, in the centre of the country.

Three generations of Czechs have been raised on the adventures of Bobík, Myšpulín, Fifinka and Pinďa – the stars of the comic Čtyřlístek. This Friday, the now-cult comic celebrates its 40th birthday. I met the man behind one of the most swapped items in Czech playgrounds of yore:

Three weeks before Czechs go to the polls to vote in elections to the European Parliament, campaigning is in full swing. While the two strongest parties are engaged in destructive mudslinging, the campaign also features a new note – the Lisbon treaty.

Czech President Václav Klaus on Wednesday announced that he had no ambitions to chair a high-profile summit of EU leaders in June, proposing that the task should go to the country’s newly appointed interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer. The statement ended weeks of speculation that the Eurosceptic Czech head of state would use the gathering as a platform for his anti-reformist views.