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Playing the game “what would have happened” with the Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion can yield a million answers, one of which might be that Czechoslovaks would have been zooming around in sleek, little Czech-made sports cars. The UVMV 1100 GT unlike anything that had been driven before in the country when it was designed in 1968, but production was cancelled by the Communist Party after the invasion. Now, 41 years later, the UVMV might finally be coming to life.

After weeks of debate the European Union on Wednesday agreed on the criteria for conducting "stress tests" on the bloc's 143 nuclear power plants. The tests which aim to avert an accident like that at Japan's Fukushima plant, will check nuclear plants’ preparedness in dealing with natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding, as well as for man-made failures such as airplane crashes and explosions. We called Petr Brandejs, deputy head of the Czech Institute for Nuclear Safety to find out how the Czech Republic’s two nuclear power plants –Temelín

The Czech Football Association has given Slavia Prague a new lease on life, issuing the club a licence on Tuesday to play in the top flight next year. The club, with more than a 100-year history, was in danger of being relegated to the lowly third division over unpaid debts and a lack of ownership transparency. Now the most outstanding questions have been answered and the club will return next season.

Google will continue expanding its Street View application in the Czech Republic after it agreed to meet several conditions required by the country’s data privacy watchdog. These include lowering the height of Street View cameras as well as a promise to swiftly deal with privacy complaints from the public. The US internet company, which has already made most of Prague and several other Czech cities available in Street View, said they would resume the project in the coming months.

Public Affairs chairman Radek John has been re-elected to his post following an online vote by party members. Mr John received almost 1,200 votes via the internet while the head of the party’s parliamentary club, Karolína Peake, came in a close second. In many ways, the online election has left a lot to be desired as surprisingly only some 40 percent of eligible supporters took part.

On Monday, the director of the International Energy Agency Nobuo Tanaka warned that by pressing ahead with its plan to phase out nuclear power, Germany was threatening European energy security. Meanwhile, the vice-president of the Czech Energy Regulatory Office, Blahoslav Němečka, has predicted an increase of energy prices in the Czech Republic by 3.6 to 6 percent next year, and cites developments in Germany as an important factor in determining the future cost of energy. I spoke about the issue with Václav Bartuška, the government’s appointee to

The UN General Assembly on Friday elected the Czech Republic and 14 other states to serve on the UN Human Rights Council for a three year term, starting next month. The Czech Republic, which has served on the council previously, was elected in the first round, gaining support from 148 out of 191 countries present and winning one of the two seats designed for Eastern Europe. The Czech Foreign Ministry says it will give the country a better opportunity to help others on the road to freedom, critics say the Czech Republic itself could learn from the

Saturday saw the opening of an unusual exhibit held in both Prague and in London, honoring Sir Nicholas Winton, who organized the rescue of nearly 700 Jewish children by train from German-occupied Czechoslovakia to London in 1939. The exhibit, organized by director and photographer Jaroslav Brabec and Olga Menzelová, wife of the well-known Czech director Jiří Menzel, tells the stories of those who later came to be known Winton’s children. In attendance were some of them, as well as Sir Nicholas himself, who celebrated his 102nd birthday last week.

The embattled junior coalition party, Public Affairs, has launched an online vote for the new party leader. Some 6,000 registered party supporters have until Monday to pick one of three candidates, including the incumbent chairman Radek John. But regardless of who becomes the new Public Affairs chairperson, the scandal-stricken party with dwindling approval ratings is likely to remain the weakest link of the Czech centre-right government.

Public confidence in the country’s president, Václav Klaus, has fallen to an all-time low, according to a new poll conducted by the STEM agency. The results, reported on Wednesday, show the president’s numbers as dropping to 47 percent, down from last December when the they stood at 63. The drop, say political analysts, is likely to be related the president’s role in the recent government crisis but also other notable factors, including remarks by a key aide on the death of Osama Bin Laden, and even a comic ‘pen stealing’ incident in Chile that