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Interior Minister Ivan Langer has condemned the actions of three police officers being prosecuted over the death of a Vietnamese man in their custody. The man was arrested and detained after a routine complaint over noise, but died after being beaten in police custody.

Environment experts from the 27 EU member states met in Prague on Monday for a two-day seminar on battling climate change. The conference should help outline the framework for an agreement on future limitations of greenhouse gasses emissions, a successor to the Kyoto protocol, due to expire in 2012. As the Czech environment minister, Martin Bursík, told the conference, the Czech Republic wants to secure wider cooperation on the issue.

Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach, a 20-year old student from Prague’s Charles University. At the top of the city’s Wenceslas Square Palach doused himself in petrol and set himself alight, in a desperate attempt to rouse Czechs from what he saw as their increasing apathy in the wake of the Soviet-led invasion of the previous summer. He died three days later on January 19 1969, with his huge funeral becoming at a protest against the occupation. Tomáš Halík, a Roman Catholic priest and head of the Czech Christian

Following his suicide, Jan Palach was adopted by Czechs as a national hero, while the communist authorities tried – in vain – to erase all trace of what he had done. When Czechs gathered to mark his death 20 years later in 1989, they were met with tear gas and unprecedented police brutality. The clampdown resulted in a week of protests, which some say led to the Velvet Revolution in November that year.

The horrible death of Jan Palach shook the Czechoslovak nation. In the ten days between Palach’s self-immolation and his massive funeral, the country saw a number of rallies and protests, as people expressed their opposition to both the Soviet occupiers and the home-grown communist elite that was beginning to collaborate with them. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Jan Palach’s death, a new exhibition has just opened in Prague featuring rarely seen photos of those events.

The Czech currency is losing its muster. The crown, one of the world’s fastest appreciating currencies in 2008, is now rapidly weakening. It has sunk to its lowest point since November 2007, trading on Thursday at over 27 crowns to the euro and just over 20 crowns to the dollar. Chief financial markets analyst of ČSOB bank Jan Čermák explains what is happening to the Czech crown.

The world of Czech culture is in mourning following the death of the renowned architect Jan Kaplický, who passed away on Wednesday evening. The loss is not just a major one for the Czech Republic, but a deep personal one for his family – Mr Kaplický died just three hours after his wife gave birth to a daughter in Prague.

The dust is still settling from the controversial art installation that’s appeared at the European Union Council building in Brussels. The piece was commissioned by the Czech EU Presidency, who asked sculptor and well-known provocateur David Černý to bring together 27 European artists for the work. However David Černý has now admitted duping the government, which has been left trying to explain some highly offensive depictions to its EU partners.

The former Czech president Václav Havel is in hospital, in what doctors are calling a serious condition, following an operation on his throat on Sunday. He was admitted to hospital after suffering from breathing difficulties. Following on from the surgery, there were further complications, though physicians are saying that Mr Havel’s condition remains stable.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek set forward his government’s vision for the Czech EU presidency today, in front of a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Mr Topolánek used the speech to underline key Czech goals during the six-month long EU presidency, which began this month.