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Differences between police president Petr Lessy, Prime Minister Petr Nečas and the country’s finance minister, Miroslav Kalousek, reached boiling point this week, leading the country’s head-of-state, Vaclav Klaus, to weigh in. On Wednesday Mr Klaus met the police president at Prague Castle, expressed full support for him and clearly stated that attacks against the police official had to stop.

On June 10th, a new consumer protection website was launched by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture designed to significantly aid in consumer protection. The site is named “potraviny na pranýři” – or “groceries on the stocks” (official translation: “food pillory”), meaning the old-fashioned wooden kind used to publically humiliate wrongdoers. The project has been a huge hit with consumers, while many leading supermarket chains are less than thrilled.

As is often the case in science, you may not know the name of the Dr. Antonín Holý even if your life depends on it. The work of the acclaimed Czech chemist has extended or improved the lives of millions suffering from HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and many other viral diseases. His theoretical work on the genetic code in the 1960s preceded any practical application by decades. And his meticulous and principled approach to scientific processes, and more than 400 discoveries, made him a role model for many and one of the most outstanding modern Czech scientists.

Want to try out some “Kafkarate”? Or compete in “Freestyle Kissing”, followed up by some “High Heel gymnastics”? The witty new campaign by Prague City Hall to attract Londoners, trying to escape the stress of the Olympics this year, is based on paraphrasing many Olympic disciplines.

The lower house of the Czech Parliament has passed a controversial bill on the restitution of church property. Under the draft legislation, 17 Czech churches and religious groups would get tens of billions of crowns worth of physical property confiscated by the communist regime, plus financial compensation. The bill will now be put to vote in the opposition-controlled Senate which is likely to turn it down, and send it back to the lower house for final approval.

Police president Petr Lessy dropped a political bombshell on Thursday, revealing that over a week ago he was repeatedly called by the finance minister over an ongoing police investigation into the CASA military plane purchase. Speaking before the Security Committee on Thursday, Mr Lessy made clear he considered the calls at best highly inappropriate, if not a direct attempt at intimidation. The minister himself has denied any wrongdoing, while the opposition has already called for his head.

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.