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With just a fortnight to the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London the Czech Olympic Committee as well as the Czech embassy in the British capital is gearing up for the event. The base for Czech sports fans and visitors to the games will be the “Czech House”, located in the borough of Islington, which will open on Friday, July 27. Radio Prague spoke to the Czech ambassador to the UK, Michael Žantovský, and asked him about the preparations.

Parliament on Wednesday voted to revoke the immunity of its deputy chairwoman, Vlasta Parkanová, who police suspect of having made a highly disadvantageous military purchase when she was defence minister in 2009. While the case has been a matter of huge debate in recent weeks, the fact that the current lower house has now given up more of its members than any other has lead to a broader discussion on whether parliamentary immunity serves any useful purpose.

Since the advent of the DVD video format in the late 1990s, many countries around the world have been re-mastering and restoring their respective movie archives. With the relatively recent advent of high resolution Blu-ray home movie technology, such restoration efforts have increased exponentially. But, perhaps surprisingly, the Czech Republic lags far behind its neighbours in this effort. While the Slovaks have restored around eighty feature films, animated films and documentaries, only two Czech films, the aforementioned Fireman’s Ball – the

A three-week-old baby girl who was kidnapped by an unidentified man in the region of Ústí nad Labem last week has been found safe and sound. Following an intense police search in both the Czech Republic and neighboring Germany, police learned the whereabouts of the child and four suspects on Monday. Now the newborn will be reunited with her family.

Parliament’s Mandate and Immunity Committee has advised deputies in the lower house to strip coalition MP Vlasta Parkanová of immunity. The former defence minister is suspected of abuse of public office and breach of trust in connection with a 3.5 billion crown purchase of military planes during her term in office.

Czech scientists have found unique specimens of trilobites that suggest something thought to be impossible – something was eating them. The small animals were amongst the most successful in history, crawling along the seabed for more than 270 million years. But during the Cambrian era, 500 million years ago, when neither fish nor cephalopods had developed, there should have been nothing capable of sinking its teeth into their hard shells. At a recent conference of international palaeontologists in Prague, Dr Oldřich Fatka of the Institute of Geology

Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas on Monday attended a commemorative ceremony for the victims of the Romany Holocaust. At the site of a former concentration camp in Lety, Mr Nečas admitted the Czech responsibility for the murder of over 5,000 Romanies during the war. But the official event sparked controversy among the Romany community which says the government should first make sure the victims were giving a dignified memorial.

Prague is hosting the 15th festival of the Sokol athletics movement, a gathering of around 20,000 members and supporters from at home and abroad. In the past, Sokol played an important role in the Czech nation’s emancipation, and its festivals, held every six years, were huge demonstrations of national unity. But today, the Sokols come to manifest their love for sports and exercise. Jan Richter reports.

As the annual celebrations of the legacy of St. Cyril and Methodius approach many believers are undertaking a religious pilgrimage to the historic town of Velehrad, where the missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius arrived in 863 to preach the Gospel in the Slavonic language. One of these walking pilgrimages is on its way now, having set off from the town of St Hostýn on Monday.

Innovative! Refreshing! Cool! But also: Shallow, Dumb, and an outright travesty! Since its release roughly a week ago, the new logo of CzechTourism has almost become a sort of Czech Marmite. Receiving, both very positive, as well as mocking remarks from critics and the wider public.