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The Czech Republic’s Muslim community has complained after police raided the headquarters of Prague’s Islamic Foundation and a mosque on the outskirts of the city during Friday prayers, detaining some 20 people and filing hate crime charges against one man. Muslim community leaders say the operation was over the top – and deny inciting ethnic or religious hatred.

Heads of state and other officials from countries of Central and Eastern Europe as well as three post-Soviet states of South Caucasus have met in the Czech capital at a two-day conference dedicated to the European Union’s Eastern Partnership programme, an initiative founded five years ago in Prague with the aim to strengthen the European Union’s relations with six states of the former Soviet Union. But discussions about the programme’s five-year existence as well as its future prospects were overshadowed by the current situation in Ukraine.

The holy relics of Saint Adalbert of Prague, or Vojtěch as he is known in his native country, have received a new shrine at their final resting place at Prague Castle. Besides the Czech Republic, the legacy of 10th-century Catholic cleric and martyr is honoured also in Poland, Hungary and Germany.

The Czech government want to reset relations with China in an attempt to boost trade between the two countries. Just days before the first visit of a Czech foreign minister to Beijing in 15 years, Czech government officials announced they would adopt EU policy towards the communist country, and would no longer question its occupation of Tibet.

Czech officials have pledged to crack down on the widespread practice of altering used cars’ mileage. It is estimated that half of all second-hand vehicles sold are “clocked”, costing customers dozens of billions each year. The Ministry of Industry and Trade now wants to make mileage manipulation a criminal offense.

The results of a study released by Nielsen this week suggest the last 15 years have been less than kind to small grocery and variety stores in the Czech Republic. While in 2000 there were more than 10,600, the number has since dropped by roughly a third. The reason? Hyper- and supermarket chains which have largely changed how Czechs do their shopping.

Two local boys from Nymburk – about 50km east of Prague – will set out on an unusual journey at the end of June; peddling almost a thousand kilometres down the River Elbe to Hamburg in a boat made out of plastic water bottles. Honza Kára, a 22-year-old student, and his friend Jakub Bureš, a 21-year-old mechanic, are currently putting the finishing touches to their craft ahead of the summer launch. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron met the two of them in Nymburk and Honza Kára told him how the idea was born.

A group of Czech scientists is threatening to launch legal action against the Czech Republic over what they see as its failure to provide appropriate protection to the Šumava National Park. The Czech Environment Ministry plans to designate 23 percent of the park’s area as non-intervention zones, off limits for loggers and developers. But the scientists argue over 50 percent of the park should be granted such protection, and say the ministry has given in to pressure from local politicians and logging firms. I spoke to Professor Pavel Kindlmann of

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka began a two-day visit to France on Thursday, his first to Paris since taking office. Meeting with President Francois Hollande, Mr Sobotka weighed in on the continuing crisis in Ukraine, calling on Russia to recall troops on Ukraine’s border. But it was largely to rebuild ties with France – as well as to connect with the French Socialist Party ahead of European elections – that were reasons for the trip.

A recent incident at a home for children with behavioral problems where two teenagers brutally attacked their teacher with a screwdriver has sparked a debate on the criminal liability of minors with the education minister proposing tougher punishment for juvenile perpetrators of violent crimes.