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A row has broken out in the Communist Party over whether or not to apologise for crimes committed by Czechoslovakia’s former Communist regime. Twenty years after the Velvet Revolution, the party still largely remains a pariah on the political scene - at least on the national level. An apology would theoretically be one step towards political acceptance.

Language teaching in the Czech Republic has been big business since the fall of Communism, with many hoping improving their language skills will increase their job prospects. Now, however, there has been a suggestion that up to 30 percent of the country’s language schools could go to the wall in the not too distant future.

All this year Czechs are remembering the fall of communism in November 1989, but just what was it exactly? Was it the “overthrow” of communism? Or simply “the collapse”? That’s a debate that’s still simmering away in Czech society, and on Saturday the country’s president Václav Klaus once again waded into it, telling students in Prague that the role of individuals in 1989 is often overestimated.

Specialists in Brno have presented a new emergency transport system aimed at saving horses that suffer tendon injuries or fractures. In the past, rescuers had to improvise to save injured horses in the Czech Republic, but now a new vehicle modified to make transport easier is going into use. The first such specialised service in central Europe should help save horses which would otherwise have to be put down.

Mushroom and berry-picking are common in the Czech Republic – so much so that they pick several billion crowns worth each year. This week the Agriculture Ministry released figures revealing that in 2008 Czechs picked domestic berries and mushrooms worth 2.7 billion crowns (the equivalent of around 150 million US dollars). While that’s certainly a lot, 2008 was actually a weak year.

The Czech Republic clarified – rather than tightened – its smoking legislation on Friday, when the Senate passed an amendment to the law on smoking in public places. The amendment was very much a compromise between anti-smoking campaigners on one hand, and those trying to protect people’s right to light up in bars and restaurants on the other. But as Rob Cameron reports, a total ban – such as that which exists in many European countries - is still a long way off.

The Czech Republic’s Gambrinus football league gets underway on Friday evening, when Teplice host last season’s runners-up Sparta Prague. Both will be hoping to overtake reigning champions Slavia, who the bookies have backed to retain their title. Otherwise, the new season comes with a number of interesting talking points.

It wasn’t a very auspicious start, and it didn’t end very well either – Czech Television, the country’s national broadcaster, has confirmed that it’s withdrawing from the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest due to lack of public interest. The Czech Republic only made its debut in the competition in 2007, but its first three attempts have been disastrous – the most recent gaining the dreaded “nul points”.

Normally news about massive incentives for energy companies to invest in technology cutting down on polluting greenhouse gases would be applauded as a step in the right the direction. In the Czech Republic however those plans have stoked a massive controversy centred on the country’s very powerful electricity company, ČEZ.

Members of the academic community are raising the alarm over planned budget cuts for the Academy of Sciences. The cuts – proposed by the government’s Council for Research and Development - would see state funds for research projects fall by half over the next three years, something that critics believe will be fatal for Czech scientific research. On Tuesday students and professors held a mock execution of Czech science in the centre of Prague to draw attention to the problem. Earlier we spoke to Jiří Drahoš, President of the Academy of