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The Czech Academy of Science and Prague’s Charles University have come together to launch a new top-of-the-line scientific center, that should place the Czech Republic on the map of modern biomedical research. Supported partially by EU funds and the Czech government, the BIOCEV project was officially launched on Tuesday, though some of its researchers are already making headway in the field of genetic research.

Criminal investigators have revealed success in an operation at the weekend which led to the arrest of seven Czech nationals in the Dominican Republic. Wanted for various crimes including fraud and money laundering, the suspects, at least one of whom had been sought by the authorities as far back as 2003, is being seen as a major coup as well as a show of exemplary cooperation between the Dominican and Czech police.

Czech singer Marta Kubišová has been awarded France’s Legion of Honour in recognition of her art as well as of her courage in standing up to communist oppression. One of the greatest pop stars of the time, she became a symbol of the Prague Spring of 1968. But when she refused to bow to the new regime established after the Soviet invasion, she was banned from performing, and could only return to the stage after the fall of communism 20 years later.

Politicians, cultural figures and church dignitaries gathered in the Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle on Sunday to celebrate the 94th anniversary of the birth of independent Czechoslovakia. On the occasion, President Václav Klaus presented high state distinctions to war veterans, scientists, cultural figures and sportspeople.

Electricity prices are set to rise again in 2013, as the government seeks to recoup losses from huge subsidies paid out during the recent boom in solar power. Cheap solar panels imported from China and generous feed-in tariffs paid by the Czech government helped fuel a huge solar boom. Someone, however, has to pay for that boom and it seems like it will be the Czech consumer. From 2013 Czech households will be paying out an average of 2,200 crowns per year as their contribution to state subsidies for renewable energy – over ten times the 2009 amount.

The city of Plzeň is perhaps best known for its iconic beer – the famous gates at the entrance to the brewery are the city’s best-known landmark. But less than a kilometre away work has begun on another, rather more controversial building. Developers want to build a gigantic shopping centre in the city centre, and opponents are campaigning for a local referendum to stop it.

The lower house of Parliament on Wednesday returned a bill on the 2013 state budget to the finance minister for re-drafting after the cabinet was unable to win support for a package of proposed tax hikes, forcing it to abandon the original budget draft proposal. The finance minister has promised to re-submit the bill within 30 days, amidst growing uncertainty as to whether the government will manage to survive a confidence vote in the lower house next week.

For many years getting spa treatment covered by the state was one of the benefits afforded by health sector and all one needed to do was ask one’s doctor, citing a real or imaginary problem that a month of pampering at one of the country’s famous spas would put right. Since the 1990s a gradual overhaul of the health sector has made it increasingly difficult to avail oneself of this luxury and a new directive introduced as of October 1st has drawn a sharp line between those who really need spa treatment and those who are just there for the

Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas is facing arguably his biggest political hurdle since taking office: to convince rebel MPs from within his own party to toe the line on the government’s tax package or risk the future of the centre-right cabinet. But after talks on Tuesday saw no breakthrough, the prime minister and other members of his government scrambled for alternatives to avoid the government’s fall.

A memorial plaque to Zdeněk Urbánek, a writer, translator and a close friend of the late Václav Havel, was unveiled at the weekend at his Prague home. Zdeněk Urbánek, who died in 2008, was a significant figure of Czechoslovakia’s the anti-communist opposition, and it was at his house in the Prague district of Střešovice where the human rights manifesto Charter 77 began its journey.