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The row over the Slav Epic, a series of 20 large canvasses bestowed to Prague by their creator, the Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, has entered a new round. Prague City Hall decided on Friday to ignore a new ban issued by the authorities in Moravský Krumlov, where the paintings have been on display since the 1960s, and to go ahead with their relocation to the capital. Both sides now accuse each other of breaching the law, while the painter’s grandson John Mucha has likened Prague’s latest move to “a rape” of the masterpiece.

At the present time there are around 120 thousand people with Alzheimer’s disease in the Czech Republic. Health experts say they expect that number to quadruple in the next forty years as the average life expectancy grows and the population ages, making it a serious social and health problem. This week the government asked four Czech ministries to produce a comprehensive, long-term strategy aimed at making life easier both for Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel Schwarzenberg, is wrapping up a brief, official visit to the United States where he met with his American counterpart Hillary Clinton. Czech Radio’s US correspondent Vít Pohanka is in Washington and spoke with both officials before and after the meeting.

In recent days Italian and Polish forecasters have released reports suggesting that this winter could be the coldest Europe has seen in the last 1,000 years. The change is reportedly connected with the speed of the Gulf Stream which has allegedly slowed down in connection with the oil spill off the coast of Florida. Some scientists claim the stream will not be able to compensate the cold from Arctic winds –and according to their theory as the Gulf Stream wanes and eventually disappears Europe will have to brace for Arctic winters. Czech meteorologist

Prague has emerged almost unscathed from the ravages of the 20th century – all except one, that is. Car ownership has rocketed since the fall of communism; huge amounts of the city’s budget go towards building elaborate new road systems and the streets are often thick with exhaust fumes. However, one civic initiative is trying to redefine how people see and use their city, and as well as promoting cycling and other alternatives to the combustion engine, they’ve also produced the first ‘car-free’ map of Prague. Rob Cameron tried it out.

The Czech government’s economic advisory council, known as NERV, has come up with a set of measures to curb wide-spread corruption in public procurement. The council proposes, among other things, to simplify the procurement process and to make it more transparent. Criteria for companies taking part in public tenders should be limited to ensure greater competition. The state should also make sure that all public procurement projects are essentially needed. Radio Prague spoke to economist and NERV member Pavel Kohout, about the proposed

The highly-publicized Vítkov court case in which four neo-Nazis are standing trial for an arson attack against a Roma family is slowly drawing to a close. In one of the final hearings on Tuesday the state attorney demanded exemplary prison sentences of up to 25 years for what she said was premeditated, racially motivated attempted murder.

Petr Nečas has now been Czech prime minister for 100 days, a milestone in any leader’s career. He became chairman of the Civic Democratic Party just as campaigning for parliamentary elections was getting underway, and soon after voting at the end of May found himself head of a three-party right-of-centre coalition. But what kind of prime minister has Mr Nečas been so far? Radio Prague has been gauging opinion.

How satisfied are Czechs with their sex lives? Rather satisfied, it appears. At least according to the results of a new nation-wide survey that have just been presented in Prague. The study also revealed that some Czech men have a tendency to over-estimate how well they are endowed. Radio Prague spoke to one of the report’s supervisors, Professor Petr Weiss of the Sexology Institute of Prague’s Charles University.

A new festival that has just got underway in Prague focuses on social outreach or community theatre, in which professionals engage in a hands-on way with the world around them. The organisers of the Akcent festival have brought together leading directors in this field from around Europe, with the aim of kick-starting a similar movement in the Czech Republic.