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Former Czech president Václav Havel has come out in support of the Green Party ahead of October’s early general election. He also backed the party before elections to the European Parliament in June in which the Greens did not win any seats. So, 20 years after he led the Velvet Revolution, does Mr Havel still have political influence? Does his endorsement actually count for much? That’s a question Radio Prague put to political analyst Petr Just, from Prague’s Metropolitan University.

The Czech national football team has been in the doldrums recently with problems on and off the pitch and a big question mark over qualification for the World Cup in South Africa next year. So there was more than the normal attention for the first game under new coach Ivan Hašek, even if was just a friendly.

The Czech army has put a freeze on all recruitment in a bid to cut costs. On Wednesday, the last batch of new recruits for at least one year reported to the military academy at Vyškov to start their training. Before the end of the year, the Ministry of Defence also plans to lay off hundreds of soldiers in a bid to save millions of crowns. Earlier today, I spoke to ministry spokesperson Andrej Čírtek and asked him about the scale of the redundancies:

This week archaeologists revealed they had uncovered a 1,000 year-old mark engraved in an oak tree - the oldest preserved sign of its kind in the world. The exact meaning of the star-shaped mark is not known, although specialists have a good idea it could have been used to designate property. In any case, it is unprecedented for a symbol made a millennium or so ago to have survived to the present day.

The Czech Republic has been picked out as one of the worst hit countries for invasive plants and animals by a European study. Although the invaders can damage crops and severely impact biodiversity not much has been done so far to counter them. Environmental groups hope the new research could get things moving.

After months of criticism, Prague City Hall has admitted mistakes were made in the reconstruction of Charles Bridge, one of the capital’s most significant landmarks. City Hall has fined itself some 54,000 crowns (just under 3,000 USD) for the shortcomings – a fine which has been branded by some as ‘meaningless’ and ‘ridiculous’.

In the height of summer, no invitation is more common in the Czech Republic than “Let’s grab a beer”. Although business is down, most evening pubs still get their share of clientele enjoying the golden beverage. Now though, a venue in the eastern town of Olomouc has taken things a step further, not just allowing customers to drink but also to learn a thing or two about brewing.

When it comes to equal pay, the Czech Republic is floundering far below average, suggests research conducted by the University of Cambridge. A report into employment and pay in 10 European countries found that while Czech women worked in more or less the same jobs as Czech men, they were very far from enjoying the same wages. A little earlier, I spoke to the report’s author Dr Robert Blackburn to ask him about this new research:

Global warming is climbing ever higher up the agenda as world leaders prepare for a key meeting in December to agree on emissions cuts. The Czech Republic would have liked to go to the Copenhagen meeting brandishing a successful flagship programme for saving energy and cutting greenhouse gases. Unfortunately that programme has got a cool response and has been hurriedly overhauled.

Few rabbis and Jewish scholars became part of legends of non-Jewish people. But one, Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel who lived in Prague at the turn of the 17th century, has long been part of a Czech national legend which describes the creation of the mythical Golem. The Jewish Museum in Prague has staged an exhibition at Prague Castle to commemorate the life of the great rabbi.