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Political analyst Jiří Pehe says the Senate election results represent a backlash against the centre-right coalition government’s reforms. He expects the outcome to make political parties and the government think again about their next moves and, whatever the constitutional weakness of the Senate, force them to consult with the majority party in the upper house, the Social Democrats. We asked him whether the results came in as he expected.

The opposition Social Democrats triumphed in the weekend senate elections winning a majority in the upper house of Parliament and pledging to use the power to slow down the government’s reform drive. The vote is seen as the first real test of public support for the government’s far-reaching austerity plans.

Czech amateur wildlife photographer Patrik Bartuška (37), a tax advisor by profession, was one of those awarded this week by BBC Wildlife Magazine and the London Natural History Museum. His photograph of a tiger-shark – taken in New South Wales, Australia – was selected as one of the five best in the undersea category in the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Mr Bartuška spent almost an hour below the waves in South West Rocks to get the shot.

The Czech branch of Interpol confirmed this week the detention of Ukraine’s former economy minister Bohdan Danylyshyn, who is accused of abuse of office at home. The former high ranking Ukrainian official, who reportedly visited the Czech Republic for health reasons, remains in custody awaiting a decision on extradition.

It was twenty years ago this week that the first privately-owned radio station went on the air in Czechoslovakia just after the Velvet Revolution. “Radio Stalin” began as a pirate broadcast from atop the hill of Letná, underneath the structure that had once held up an enormous statue of the Soviet tyrant. The tongue-in-cheek name didn’t last for very long, but the broadcast has continued until today with the same focus on alternative rock under the name Radio 1.

Wednesday evening saw the highly-anticipated premiere of the new Czech film Občanský průkaz about youth & rebellion during the Normalisation period in Communist Czechoslovakia. Directed by Ondřej Trojan of Želary fame, Občanský průkaz (which means identity card or simply I.D.) is being distributed by Falcon films. Radio Prague spoke to the head of Falcon, Jan Bradáč, and asked him how the opening went.

After an eight-day nationwide search for a missing 9-year-old girl the police on Thursday reported a breakthrough in the case, saying they had arrested a suspect on the grounds of a DNA test and were renewing an intensive search in the vicinity of the girl’s home.

Four Czech neo-Nazis on Wednesday received prison terms of 22 and 20 years for attempted murder after a shocking petrol bomb attack on a Romany family’s home last year. The unusual length of the sentences has provoked some debate in the Czech Republic; the country’s president has expressed surprise that the punishment is so severe, while others have welcomed the verdict.

Four Czechs behind a brutal arson attack last year, that targeted the home of a Romany family in the east of the country, have been handed extraordinary sentences of up to 22 years in jail. The verdict is the toughest ever handed down in the country regarding a racially-motivated crime.

Czech and Slovak police units specialized in fighting organized crime announced on Tuesday they had arrested six members of a gang which sold weapons and explosives to the underworld in the Czech Republic and abroad. During raids at a number of Czech and Slovak locations police confiscated a vast amount of weapons and explosives.