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Fat cat wages at Czech state controlled companies during the economic crisis have been pushed into the limelight by the main opposition party, the Social Democrats. Party bosses say some of the pay packets now being admitted by top managers of state firms are excessive and have called for the incoming caretaker government of Prime Minister Jan Fischer to tackle them. Chris Johnstone has the details.

Just hours after the Czech health authorities ruled out the presence of the swine flu virus in the first three suspected cases, five more were reported. Press agencies brought news of the first swine flu related death in the US and several confirmed cases of swine flu in neighbouring Germany and Austria, increasing public concern about a possible pandemic.

The Czech national football team remains without a manager, following the sacking of Petr Rada three weeks ago after only nine months at the helm. A number of names, both Czech and foreign, have been bandied about in the media as a possible replacement. Meanwhile, the results of a big public vote on who should manage the Czech team have just been revealed.

One of the highlights of the Czech cultural calendar, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, gets underway in the west Bohemian spa town on July 3. While the list of special guests this year has not been completed, some names were revealed – along with the programme highlights – at a news conference in Prague on Tuesday morning. I spoke there to KVIFF’s programme director Julietta Sichel.

The winners of the European Inventor of the Year awards are due to be announced in a ceremony at Prague Castle on Tuesday evening, with 12 inventors nominated in four categories. The award is granted by the European Commission and European Patent Office, and aims to recognise the people who are pioneering solutions to today’s global challenges – a task that’s all the more difficult under the present economic circumstances. Rob Cameron has been speaking to two of the nominees: Bartolomej Janek from Slovakia, and Koen Meijer from the

As news emerges that the swine flu virus has hit Europe, with cases confirmed in both Britain and Spain, three Czechs remain under surveillance after displaying symptoms of illness upon return from Mexico. Prague’s Ruzyně Airport has implemented a system of medical-checks for passengers returning from Northern and Central America, while the government has urged Czechs to avoid all non-essential travel to the region.

With a caretaker government due to take over on May 8, there is growing concern as to how the Czech Republic will handle the remainder of its EU presidency. Can the country’s little-known and relatively inexperienced new prime minister Jan Fisher stand up to the pressure – or is this a chance for the country’s Eurosceptic president Václav Klaus to exert a far greater influence on EU affairs? Political analyst Jiří Pehe says the fears of what Mr. Klaus can do are greatly exaggerated.

A visit to the Czech Republic by David Duke - former leader of the white supremacist organisation the Ku Klux Klan – set off alarm bells last Friday among human rights organisations. Mr Duke had been set to give a number of lectures at undisclosed locations in the country at the behest of right-wing extremists. But in the end, he didn’t stay on Czech soil for long. On Friday, shortly after his arrival he was arrested, questioned by the police, and then ordered to leave the country.

The Cirkus totality (or Totalitarian Circus) was one of the cultural projects chosen to accompany the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. As part of the project, a new textbook about Central Europe’s communist past has been written, there will be a series of plays and performances staged, and a giant ‘communism timeline’ has been unveiled on Prague’s náměstí Republiky. I went along to have a look:

Thursday marked the end of an eight-day international film festival in Prague that will now be making its way around the country. The Days of European Film, now in its 16th year, presented more than 50 feature, documentary and short films from across the continent.