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An ongoing investigation into the recently thwarted mutiny in a number of Czech prisons suggests that the plot had nothing to do with the notorious Berdych gang as previously thought, but was incited by much more prosaic reasons – the atrocious living conditions in Czech jailhouses.

The town of Karlovy Vary faces a massive claim for bonds issued in 1924. The controversial US lawyer Edward Fagan this week asked Karlovy Vary to pay off over 500 million US dollars on the bonds and their interest. While officials in Karlovy Vary and at the Czech Finance Ministry are now studying the case, Mr Fagan said he would wait until the end of the month before taking the matter to court.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas has announced his government will not name a winner in a multi-billion public tender to clean up the country’s old environmental pollution leftover from the communist days. The Prime Minister made the announcement on Wednesday after Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek refused to back the lowest bid in the tender saying the price was less than convincing.

Thieves recently broke into a museum in the north-east of the Czech Republic boasting a magnificent display of hunting trophies, and took what they believed to be a rhino horn. Although this particular horn was fake, the burglary was the latest in a series of similar incidents that have occurred around Europe. The police suspect it might be the work of an international gang making profit from rhino horns which are in demand for their alleged medicinal properties.

“The Great Lady of Chanson”, “Edith Piaf from Prague” or a “Chanteuse with a Slavic Soul” – that’s how critics have described Hana Hegerová, the Czechoslovak singer who turns eighty on Wednesday. After a career spanning almost half a century, Hana Hegerová saddened her fans a couple of months ago by announcing her retirement from the stage and cancelling all her scheduled concerts.

Czech President Václav Klaus has come out strongly against allegations that the agenda of granting presidential pardons was corrupt. Earlier this week, the weekly Respekt reported on a pardon that might have been bought from the president’s office for an ex-police officer who was to serve two years in jail for corruption. While President Klaus vigorously denied these claims, the police are looking into the case, and many believe presidential pardons should be much more transparent.

In the coming weeks, people in Prague will have a unique opportunity to sample traditional dishes and delicacies from South Korea – thanks to an event organized by the country’s embassy. At its launch in a Prague hotel, Radio Prague spoke to the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Czech Republic Gabriel OH and first asked him whether Czechs have many opportunities to try Korean food in restaurants or buy the necessary ingredients.

It has emerged that police and prison guards last week thwarted the biggest ever prison mutiny in the country’s history. The plot was allegedly hatched by jailed members of the Berdych gang -the largest organized crime ring in the Czech Republic with links to former elite police officers and is said to have involved dozens of prisoners in jailhouses around the country.

Since 1997, the Czech Foreign Ministry has been honouring those who promote the good name of the Czech Republic abroad with the annual Gratias Agit awards. Last Friday, October 14, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg handed out the awards to thirteen personalities from around the globe to thank them for their outstanding work.

Controversial activist Ladislav Bátora has announced he is leaving his post at the Education Ministry. Earlier this year, his stint at the ministry became a source of upheaval on the Czech political scene but Mr Bátora was allowed to remain at the ministry in return for a promise he would stay away from politics. But on Friday, Ladislav Bátora said he was no longer willing to keep that promise and wanted to be actively engaged in public life. Commentator Jiří Pehe thinks he is leaving after his goal – getting public attention – was fulfilled.