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Spain were undeniably the favourites to win their fifth UEFA European Under-19 Championship title going into Monday’s final – and in the end their team persevered, defeating the Czech Republic 3:2. Despite the loss, most would agree the Czech team gave the Spanish squad a run for the money. The Czechs repeatedly threatened, scored the opener and led twice, before Spain came from behind to seal the victory.

August 1st has brought into force an amendment to the road law which aims to simplify the penal points system in place by being more tolerant of minor offenses while increasing punishment for dangerous driving. The new measures are the second phase of a reform aimed at making Czech roads safer.

Two years ago, representatives of 46 governments gathered at the former Nazi concentration camp in Terezín, an hour’s drive north of Prague. Among the many pledges contained within the pages of the Terezín Declaration was a promise to expedite the return of private property seized from Jews during the Holocaust and still not returned. Many descendants, however, are still waiting to get their family's property back.

The state-controlled carrier ČSA handed out earlier this week a first round of notices to some of its pilots – a step that the airline’s management says is in line with its government-approved restructuring plan. However, the Czech Airlines Pilots Association does not agree with the layoffs, and has announced a go-slow protest to kick off on Monday.

It has been five years since the bill on registered partnership between gay couples came into force in the Czech Republic. During the period, more than 1,200 gay and lesbian couples in the country formed civil unions. While most within the gay community welcomed the original legislation as an important milestone, many still feel it didn’t go far enough as it failed to recognise gay marriage or adoption rights. Radio Prague spoke to Zdeněk Sloboda, a representative of PROUD, a Czech initiative promoting human rights.

President Václav Klaus caused a minor diplomatic incident in Australia this week after refusing to go through security at Canberra’s Parliament House. Mr Klaus had arrived for a TV interview with Australia’s ABC network – which has a studio inside the building – but promptly turned on his heels when asked to walk through a metal detector.

Czech scientists working with an international team of experts have successfully finished mapping the barley genome. In a process of more than ten years, it was unique Czech technical breakthroughs that allowed the five billion letters of the barley genome to finally be deciphered. The new knowledge will not only enrich the understanding of genetic evolution but will also mean real benefits for cultivators in terms of higher yields and more resistant crops. Christian Falvey spoke to Jaroslav Doležel of the Institute of Experimental Botany in Olomouc

The number of environmental activists holding a blockade in the Modrava region of Šumava National Park to prevent felling of bark-beetle infested trees swelled on Tuesday morning in reaction to Monday’s forced evacuation by police. However logging continues and the protesters have been losing ground, both literally and legally as a regional court and the Czech Environment Inspection Office found nothing amiss with the management’s policy.

A leading Roma advocacy group has suspended co-operation with the interior ministry, accusing the police of going soft on far-right extremism. The group – Romea - says at several neo-Nazi demonstrations this year police allowed marchers to shout racist slogans without making any arrests. The Czech interior ministry denies the claims.

Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted carrying out Friday’s twin terror attacks in Norway that killed 93 people, visited the Czech capital last year in search of weapons. In a manifesto published on the day of the attacks, attributed to the Mr Breivik, the terror suspect wrote that his failure to do so in Prague led to him to acquire a rifle and a handgun legally in his homeland. In the document, the 32-year-old right-wing, anti-Islamist fundamentalist also quotes Czech President Václav Klaus’ criticism of the EU.