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An international conference entitled Europe – Whole and Free? concludes in Prague on Tuesday, commemorating the end of the Warsaw Pact. Hosted by the Czech Foreign and Defence Ministries, the conference over two days brought together former officials from both sides of the Cold War to share their views of past events. It also highlighted ongoing divisions between Russia, and the former Soviet satellites in Central and Eastern Europe.

Some of the Czech media labelled it Super Monday – the 4th round at Wimbledon in which three Czech players were vying to make it to the tournament’s quarterfinals. In the end, only one of the three did: not Tomáš Berdych (a finalist at Wimbledon last year and the World No. 7) and not the lesser-known Petra Cetkovská, whose surprise run was ended by German player Sabine Lisicki. Through to the quarterfinal is 21-year-old Petra Kvitová who is showing sensational form, dispatching Belgian opponent Yanina Wickmayer in a mere 45 minutes. The score: 6:0,

The chairman of the Czech Football Association, Ivan Hašek, announced on Sunday that he was leaving his post in favor of resuming a career in coaching. The resignation of the man who has sometimes been dubbed “the savior of Czech football” two years into his four-year contract was met with consternation and disappointment by members of the football association and the public alike. Samuel Beckwith, the blogger behind the Czech Football Daily, speaks about the implications of Mr. Hašek’s resignation, what it means for the future of soccer in this

The new nationwide school-leaving exams concluded this week at around 1,300 secondary schools around the Czech Republic. According to overall results issued by the Czech Education Ministry on Thursday, Prague’s private PORG grammar school came in at the top of the national top ten charts, followed by other schools in the capital. Nearly 20 percent of students failed the exams, and will have to retake them in September.

The Czech Republic has once again come under fire for failing to adequately protect child rights. In its latest report the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized the high number of institutionalized children in the country saying the authorities had done little to resolve this chronic problem. It also recommended that the country close its network of baby boxes –safe and anonymous hospital facilities for leaving unwanted children - which it claims violate several provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Prague on Thursday for a brief working visit. Mr Cameron met with the Czech head of government, Petr Nečas, to discuss their countries’ positions on a planned new bailout for Greece, ahead of a key EU summit in Brussels. Both leaders agreed that the planned rescue package should be put together by members of the eurozone, rather than the whole of the EU.

The Czech Supreme Court cancelled on Wednesday a 37-year-old verdict of a communist court which sent four young writers to jail for defamation of the Soviet Union and public disturbance. The four men, who spent up to a year in prison, got into trouble in the summer of 1973 in a Prague pub – when they sang an old song with slightly innovated lyrics.

The Czech Parliament has approved the first stage of the government’s health care reform. The three-party coalition, which has a majority in the lower house, pushed the bill through despite opposition from the back-benches that it will create a socially unjust, two-tier health system. The Social Democrats’ shadow health minister David Rath announced that his party would do everything it could to prevent the new legislation from being implemented – including taking it to court. Health care expert Dr. Martin Stránský speaks about whether these criticisms

Duke Special is a songwriter and performer from Belfast whose style is influenced by vaudeville and theater. Having opened for the likes of Van Morrison and Snow Patrol, he is known for putting on a captivating live performance – often using unusual instruments such as old gramophones or transistor radios. Duke Special’s four-concert tour of the Czech Republic kicks off Tuesday night at Prague’s Malostranská Beseda. We caught up with him ahead of his show, the second time he will be performing here, and started out by asking if he had any special

A report by the Czech Helsinki Committee, a respected human rights NGO, on Monday again highlighted the sorry state of Czech prisons. Their overcrowding continues to rise, which in turn deteriorates the living conditions for the inmates. The authorities believe – as they did a decade ago – that alternative punishment would help. But the system of alternative punishments has been inefficient and now supplies more convicts to the country’s prison houses.