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On Friday, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival once again kicks off in the west Bohemian spa town. In its 45th year, the country’s biggest and most renowned film festival will show 205 films, a quarter of which are world premieres. We hear from our reporter Ian Willoughby, who is currently in Karlovy Vary, about what we can expect this year and what the atmosphere is like there ahead of the opening ceremony.

The Czech Republic scored a major diplomatic victory over neighbouring Germany and Austria this week after the European Union granted the cherished protected geographical status to the country’s pungent Olomoucké tvarůžky cheese. That means only the original cheese produced in the village of Loštice - near the Moravian city of Olomouc - can sell the product under that name; everything else is an impostor.

Fast on the heels of an agreement on the share out of cabinet posts, the incoming Czech government has hammered out the main lines of its proposed budget for next year. The aim is for the state to pay its way on less borrowed money with the help of deeper cuts in public spending.

Czech tennis player Tomáš Berdych caused a sensation on Wednesday at Wimbledon when he knocked out top-seed and defending champion Roger Federer. It is the first time the Czech has beaten the World No. 1 in a grand slam and represents his own first win on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

The former president Václav Havel has begun directing a film adaptation of his latest play, Leaving. The play, which premiered in 2008, deals with a politician's painful adjustment to a new life after retiring from politics. The 73-year-old playwright led his country for 13 years, but since his own political retirement has returned to stage work – and is now making his debut in film.

The Czech tennis player Petra Kvitová unexpectedly reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon on Tuesday, after overcoming Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. The 20-year-old Kvitová – ranked 62nd in the world - had already caused one upset earlier by knocking out fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki. However, in the semi-finals she will face her toughest opponent yet: grass court powerhouse and reigning Wimbledon champion Serena Williams.

US President Barack Obama has nominated Norman Eisen, a lawyer and the president’s advisor on ethics, as the new ambassador to the Czech Republic. The Czech Foreign Ministry approved the nomination on Wednesday, but Mr Eisen’s nomination is yet to be confirmed by the US Senate. Radio Prague spoke to Daniel Anýž, a commentator for a leading Czech daily, Hospodářské noviny, about the likely new US envoy to Prague.

The name Pete Best became a synonym for nearly man after he was kicked out of The Beatles before they became the biggest band the world had ever seen. The group’s original drummer is currently in Prague to perform at an exhibition at the Czech Museum of Music entitled Beatlemánie, which features original memorabilia and documents how young people in Czechoslovakia, like their peers elsewhere in the world, were thrilled by the explosion of the Fab Four. On the eve of the show, I discussed The Beatles’ continued popularity with Pete Best.

Tortuous negotiations on who will fill key posts in the new centre-right cabinet appear to have ended in agreement, with the final pieces of the jigsaw falling into place for new prime minister Petr Nečas. His Civic Democrats seem to have made considerable concessions, with the powerful ministries of finance, foreign affairs and the interior all going to smaller coalition allies. But surprisingly – and for the first time in eight years – there’s not a single woman amongst them.

A Prague City councillor, Jiří Janeček of the Civic Democrats, has come forward with a controversial plan which – if implemented – would push long-term homeless people from the city centre. His aim, Czech TV reported on Tuesday, is for the city to build a camp somewhere on the periphery that would provide shelter as well as soup twice a day for those, he said, who “respected nothing” or presented a “hygiene or security risk”. Not surprisingly, the proposal has quickly drawn criticism from charities and NGOs.