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While the name Auxiliary Technical Battalions sounds innocuous, in reality such battalions were a division of the Czechoslovak Army that used conscripts as virtual slave labour, and thousands of men who the Communists deemed “politically unreliable” were in effect interned in them in the 1950s. Now, those still alive look set to be placed in the same official category as former political prisoners – and to receive a little compensation.

Wednesday evening - Mikuláš – the eve before Saint Nicolas’ Day – is being eagerly awaited by children around the country. Each year on December 5, Saint Nicolas accompanied by an angel and a devil, visits Czech families to see if the children have been good. Kids who were well-behaved receive sweets, chocolate, fruit or a present, while those who were naughty (at least in theory) receive a potato or lump of coal.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Prime Minister Petr Nečas on Wednesday as part of a brief visit before heading to Germany. The aim was to thank his Czech counterpart for supporting Israel’s stance against the Palestinian Authority gaining a non-member observer status at the UN. The Czech Republic was one of only nine nations that voted against the resolution at last Thursday’s meeting of the General Assembly – a decision that drew criticism from many sides.

The historical drama Alois Nebel won the European Film Award for best animated feature film in Malta over the weekend. Its director Tomáš Luňák thus became the third Czech, after Helena Třeštíková and Miloš Forman to take home one of the prestigious European film awards.

The project to build two new reactors at South Bohemia’s Temelín nuclear power plant represents a huge investment. But the massive project may never get off the ground, not least if the government reassess issues surrounding the project’s financing as well as continuing uncertainty on the energy market.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Prague on Monday, on the first leg of a European tour. At meetings with Czech officials, Secretary Clinton made a pitch for the US firm Westinghouse, which is in competition with a Russian-led consortium for a multi-billion-dollar Czech nuclear project. She says the US bid offers the best technology and highest security – and would reduce the Czech Republic’s dependence on Russian energy.

The Czech Education Ministry has unveiled a new series of comprehensive measures aimed at removing widespread discrimination of Romany children in the Czech education system. Although the European Commission has long urged the Czech Republic to address the problem little corrective action has been taken since the matter was first raised in 1998.

The National Reference Laboratory for HIV/AIDS has just announced that in the first 10 months of this year alone, the number of new registered cases of HIV has already exceeded the previous annual record from 2010. This week the number hit the 200 mark – and it is expected to grow further by the end of 2012.

Wednesday’s announcement that Alexandr Vondra is giving up the defence portfolio means that, since the appointment of Petr Nečas’s government in July 2010, 12 ministers have now left the cabinet. Indeed, that’s the highest number of departures from one front bench since the foundation of the Czech Republic. So why is the turnover in the Nečas cabinet so high? And what can we expect next?

Leaving aside the controversy involving the biggest public health insurance provider and a new round of doctor strikes looming on the horizon, the public health insurance system in the Czech Republic is quite a generous one. But unlike some other EU countries, this generosity does not extend to everyone who lives and pays taxes here. Almost 100 thousand foreigners living in this country have no access to public insurance, and in some cases are denied insurance all together. A number of NGOs have been campaigning to include these people in the public