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Czech troops may stay in Afghanistan until the end of 2014. Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra, who is in the United States on a working visit, said he would ask the Czech Parliament to extend their mandate by another 24 months, as their current mandate will expire by the end of the year. However, the opposition has criticized Mr Vondra for announcing his plans without a prior debate in the lower house.

Men’s World No. 7 Tomáš Berdych had been having a good season so far – recently wining, for example, the Hopman Cup in Australia with women’s player Petra Kvitová; but on Tuesday he faced an even bigger challenge: trying to get past Spain’s Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open to reach his first-ever semi-final at the Grand Slam tournament.

After the death of the late Czech president Václav Havel, thousands of people laid down wreaths and lit candles at impromptu memorial sites across the country. Now, two artists have decided to recycle those candles for an unusual memorial – a wax heart. Dozens of volunteers are currently working on the “A heart for Havel” initiative at a Prague cultural center.

Thursday saw protests by students and teachers from Prague’s Charles University in the face of the government’s planned higher education act. Critics charge that changes planned in the legislation will choke academic freedom in favour of business and politics.

The Czech police have arrested two men suspected of robbing more than 70 graves in northern Bohemia. The men mainly targeted older, unkempt tombs in the region in search of gold teeth, medals and other relics. The investigators were shocked by their callousness; one of them said he was more interested in the thrill of tomb raiding than the actual loot.

The question whether or not the country should join the emerging EU fiscal union has divided Czech politicians and appears to be fraught with problems. While one governing party is in favour of an emphatic “yes”, and the country’s eurosceptic president has already voiced an emphatic “no”, everything points to the fact that Czechs will continue to sit on the fence for as long as possible.

Is giving the finger to a fellow member of Parliament or calling him an idiot acceptable? It is in the Czech Republic, at least according to MPs themselves. The mandate and immunity committee of the lower house this week dismissed two such cases, saying they would only resort to punishment if the situation worsened. Radio Prague spoke to political analyst Karel Müller from Prague’s University of Economics, and asked him whether we should we come to accept such coarse behaviour.

Despite gloomy news and grim forecasts almost all around these days one sector of the economy - namely the automotive industry – is in top gear. In 2011, two out of three manufacturers – Hyundai and Škoda Auto exceeded previous expectations, and while TPCA suffered a drop in production, all three together produced a record 1,186,000 vehicles. And they are gearing up for an equally good year in 2012, reading to launch mid-priced new or revamped models aimed at both the domestic market and markets abroad.

A woman's right to give birth at home is back in the spotlight in the Czech Republic, as a group of pregnant women intend to file a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Czech state makes planned home births virtually impossible; there are midwives qualified to deliver babies at home, but they lack official registration and insurance companies won't cover them.

Air quality, the unemployment rate and the cost of public transportation – many factors influence the perceived quality of life in urban spaces. A fresh survey suggests that there is much left to improve when it comes to the quality of life in the Czech capital, with the most-cited nuisances of Prague residents being garbage and graffiti. By contrast, public transportation is viewed as adequate and fairly priced by most.