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The car manufacturer Škoda Auto has seen another year of record sales and growing revenues. In 2012, the German-owned, Czech based car producer sold nearly 940,000 cars world wide, mainly thanks to its expansion in China, Russia, and India. And the manufacturer hopes to set a new sales record this year, despite an expected slowdown in the first six months. I spoke to analyst Jiří Šimara from the Brno-based brokerage firm Cyrrus about Škoda’s performance in 2012.

There are now many guidebooks on how to achieve career success in your chosen profession, most of them crammed with tips on how to dress, how to behave, and how to get promoted. A new book out by Linda Štucbartová called Ambassadors Without Diplomatic Passports is different. The author lets successful Czechs give their own advice on what to do, what to expect and what to avoid in their given field, be they career diplomats or people from other walks of life.

The Czech Republic has intensified diplomatic efforts to try to secure the release of two Czech women kidnapped in south-west Pakistan last week. No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction or asked for a ransom. Although the Pakistani authorities are working on the case, previous kidnappings in the troubled province suggest it may take weeks to find them.

King and King (Koning und Koning), a young children’s book by authors Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland that was first published in Dutch but has since been translated into English and several other languages, is slated to soon get a Czech edition. The children’s book tells the story of young prince Bertie who must marry in order to inherit the kingdom. The twist is that he falls not for the princess but for her brother.

The Social Democrats chose a new leadership at a closely-watched congress at the weekend. The conference re-elected Bohuslav Sobotka as chairman to lead the country’s main opposition party into next year’s general election, which many expect them to win. But the congress also showed that the road to power may not be smooth.

Almost three months after the swift sacking of Karolína Peake, the Czech Republic is finally getting a new minister of defence in the form of career soldier General Vlastimil Picek. General Picek is currently deputy minister and has a good deal of experience, having also served as chief of the general staff of the Czech Army for five years.

Two decades after the split of Czechoslovakia, the Czech and Slovak football associations have just announced a plan to set up a joint league. If the idea – which has been mooted before – gets the backing of top flight clubs in both states, a working group will be set up to begin preparing for a move that would reignite old rivalries from the days of the federal republic. But what is the thinking behind the plan? And how likely are we to actually see a Czech-Slovak league in the future?

After a day of deliberations the Papal Conclave at the Vatican made an unexpected but highly welcomed choice for the new leader of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis I from Argentina was warmly received by the faithful all over the world on Wednesday evening.

Orania, which has been shown at this year’s One World film festival of human rights documentaries, is a fascinating portrait of a controversial purely white town founded in 1991 by a group of Afrikaners averse to post-apartheid South Africa’s “rainbow nation”. Two decades later, Orania now has a population of around 1,000, and even its own currency.

A group of prominent intellectuals, including writer Ivan Klíma and journalist Bohumil Doležal, have slammed the new president for a comment on the media he made in last week’s inauguration speech. President Zeman promised he would combat parts of the media that he said manipulated opinion, even accusing them of brainwashing the public. In an open letter this week, his critics accused the president of indirectly threatening free speech. Others, though, don’t see it as a freedom of speech issue – at least not yet.