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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.

Královská Kaple, the King’s Chapel, was part of the history of the city of Brno for 600 years. But at the beginning of the 20th century it was pulled down to make way for modernisation. The destruction caused protest, and the progressive city planners were made to agree that one day they would resurrect the building. It might have been a long time coming, but now Brno City Hall has announced it will be making good on its 101-year-old promise.

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

The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, is in Israel for a three-day working visit. After meeting the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem on Wednesday, he’s set to meet for talks with his counterpart, Prime Minister Netanyahu. Czech Radio’s Middle East correspondent Břetislav Tureček, is following the visit in Jerusalem. Radio Prague asked him what the main points on the Czech Prime Minister’s agenda were.

A week after Ottawa brought back visas for Czech citizens over the large numbers of Czech Romanies seeking asylum in Canada, the Czech government put out a report on the state of Romany communities in the Czech Republic for 2008. The report is bleak: Czech-Romany relations are bad, it says, and will be difficult to fix.

Imagine being invited - as a member of a stadium audience – to perform on stage with one of the world’s greatest bands. It could never happen, right? But that’s exactly how it was for a trio of Czech musicians at a U2 concert in Berlin last weekend. Incredibly, U2 singer Bono invited the Czechs – all strangers to him – to come up for the song Angel of Harlem.

The Czech caretaker government has approved far reaching plans for how the country could develop over the next decades. The controversial development plan earmarks where strategic infrastructure could be placed. While the government insists no final decisions have been taken on what goes where, critics beg to differ.

One of the country’s largest travel agencies, Tomi Tour, declared bankruptcy on Friday, a development that left around 3,000 Czech tourists temporarily stranded at a number of vacation sites and thousands of others without holiday plans. Just a week earlier, Tomi Tour executive Václav Fischer had assured clients they could look forward to their holidays “without worries”. A few days later it was a different story.

A Czech heavy metal star has got himself into trouble over the lyrics of the title song of his band’s latest album “Deratizer” or exterminator. The refrain refers to stealing gypsies and suggests an exterminator be employed. The rock singer has defended himself against accusations of racism.