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Former Czech president and playwright Václav Havel, will attend the premiere of his latest play, Leaving, in the United States at the end of the month. The 73-year-old author is also preparing for a new role – in July, he will direct a film version of the play

European Union finance ministers have agreed a massive package of funding to stop the spread of Greek financial crisis and save the euro zone from collapse. The Czech Republic escaped lightly from the latest financial commitments. But the wave of concern about European governments ability to pay their way and not live on borrowed time and money will focus even more attention on the fiscal steps of the next Czech government in power.

Activities of right-wing extremists have dropped in the first three months of this year, according to a report by the Czech intelligence service, or BIS, released on Thursday. While the decrease is attributed to the ban of the far-right Workers’ Party, authorities says better police work has also curbed extremism-related crime.

Just a week to go and the 65th International Prague Spring Music Festival takes to the many stages of the Czech capital. This year will see more than 60 concerts, theatre performances and other events and bring some of the world’s best composers and musicians to Prague. And what’s more, young performers will also about at this, one of Europe’s most important music festivals.

The Czech hockey team is gearing up for the Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany, departing for Mannheim on Friday. A day earlier the team dispatched Belarus in a final warm-up match 5-2. What will it take for the Czechs to do well in Germany, after a disappointing finish earlier this year at the Vancouver Olympics? We look at a number of key factors.

Politicians across the board were shaken by a violent attack on the deputy leader of the Social Democrats, Bohuslav Sobotka, at an election rally in Brno on Wednesday. Mr. Sobotka had just finished speaking when he was approached and punched in the face by a man in the audience. His party has described it as an attack on freedom and democracy and blame their main rival, the centre-right Civic Democrats, for whipping up an atmosphere of hate and violence – something the latter deny. Sarah Borufka reports.

They are the country’s unsung war heroes: thousands of men and women who fled Nazi-occupation to serve in foreign armies during the Second World War. Those who returned to communist Czechoslovakia after the war were branded enemies of the state, those who stayed away were given no credit, unless they had fought alongside the Soviet forces on the Eastern front. Historians are now working on an internet project which aims to map the fate of some 83 thousand Czechs and Slovaks who fought against Nazi oppression in different parts of the world.

Public broadcaster Czech TV will screen a documentary film on Thursday entitled Zabíjení po česku, or ‘Killings Czech style’. It features unique footage of a massacre of over 40 ethnic Germans that took place in Prague in May, 1945, shortly after the end of the war. The authors say they want to draw attention to the atrocities committed on German civilians in post-war Czechoslovakia, though some historians believe this particular murder was carried out by Soviet troops.

The surprise political hit of the Czech general election campaign so far, the Public Affairs party, has come under the spotlight for another reason than its high poll ratings. Media attention has focussed on the party’s newly launched street patrols and its populist stance on law and order.

Wednesday is the 65th anniversary of the start of the Prague Uprising, when thousands of people took to the streets in an attempt to liberate the city from Nazi occupation, just days before the arrival of the Red Army. Several events have been held to mark the date, including a memorial at Czech Radio, which made a dramatic call on citizens to fight the occupiers on the morning of May 5, 1945.