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Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has met with the Czech head of state Václav Klaus and other Czech officials during a two-day visit to Prague. He shared with them the Palestinian authority’s views on the current situation in the Middle East, and praised the Czech Republic’s involvement in the peace process.

All eyes are on the northern town of Liberec at the moment for the Nordic World Ski Championships, described as the biggest sports event the Czech Republic has ever held. But the championships are attracting scrutiny of a different kind – this week the Supreme Audit Office filed criminal charges last week for fraud, loan fraud, and breach of trust.

This weekend Prague is hosting the European Air Weapons Championships, an indoor shooting event that takes place at the city’s O2 Arena. Czech 10-m air rifle Olympic champion Kateřina Emmons, whose American husband Matthew Emmons also has an Olympic gold in his medals collection, is pregnant and not competing, though she will be in attendance. On the eve of the championships, I asked Kateřina Emmons if shooting had become more popular in the Czech Republic in the wake of her success.

Tree-lined avenues have been a distinct feature of the Czech countryside for many hundreds of years. For all their beauty and benefit however, they are also the lethal factor behind one fifth of all road deaths.

Thursday evening sees the premiere of a Czech version of the play Performances by the Irish dramatist Brian Friel. It should be of particular interest to Czech music lovers, as Performances is based on an episode in the life of Leoš Janáček and features one of the last pieces the great composer wrote.

The Czech president Václav Klaus addressed the European Parliament on Thursday morning, in a keenly-anticipated appearance that disappointed neither the president’s critics, nor his supporters. Eurosceptic MEPs rose to their feet and applauded as Mr Klaus attacked the “democratic deficit” that he said plagued the European Union, while pro-integration parliamentarians booed, whistled, and even walked out.

The lower house of the Czech parliament approved the European Union's Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday, by a narrow margin of five votes. The treaty – aimed at reforming the EU - now goes to the upper house, where it faces stiff opposition from the main governing party, the Civic Democrats. The Czech Republic currently holds the revolving presidency of the EU, and ratifying Lisbon is proving to be politically rather awkward.

This Wednesday evening sees the start of the Nordic World Ski Championship in Liberec – the most notable sports event in the Czech Republic in 2009. Never before have the Czechs hosted the Worlds, and all eyes here will be on Czech hopefuls, most notably last year’s World Cup cross-country skiing winner Lukáš Bauer.

The Czech crown has plunged against the euro and US dollar in recent weeks on fears over the health of the local and Central European economies. It has fallen 10 percent against the euro and 19 percent against the dollar so far this year, making Czech exports cheaper but foreign holidays more expensive. I asked Patria Finance analyst Tomáš Vlk how low the crown can go and whether the slide is good or bad news for the future.

Czech officials have tried - and tried again - to stamp out football hooliganism, but at last, say observers, a step in the right direction. On Monday, Czech police and the Czech Football Association (ČMFS) signed an agreement shifting responsibility for security to individual clubs. While the police will continue to monitor key games from outside stadiums, they will only move in if a situation gets out of hand.