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The Czech Republic has intensified diplomatic efforts to try to secure the release of two Czech women kidnapped in south-west Pakistan last week. No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction or asked for a ransom. Although the Pakistani authorities are working on the case, previous kidnappings in the troubled province suggest it may take weeks to find them.

The Social Democrats chose a new leadership at a closely-watched congress at the weekend. The conference re-elected Bohuslav Sobotka as chairman to lead the country’s main opposition party into next year’s general election, which many expect them to win. But the congress also showed that the road to power may not be smooth.

Almost three months after the swift sacking of Karolína Peake, the Czech Republic is finally getting a new minister of defence in the form of career soldier General Vlastimil Picek. General Picek is currently deputy minister and has a good deal of experience, having also served as chief of the general staff of the Czech Army for five years.

Two decades after the split of Czechoslovakia, the Czech and Slovak football associations have just announced a plan to set up a joint league. If the idea – which has been mooted before – gets the backing of top flight clubs in both states, a working group will be set up to begin preparing for a move that would reignite old rivalries from the days of the federal republic. But what is the thinking behind the plan? And how likely are we to actually see a Czech-Slovak league in the future?

After a day of deliberations the Papal Conclave at the Vatican made an unexpected but highly welcomed choice for the new leader of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis I from Argentina was warmly received by the faithful all over the world on Wednesday evening.

A group of prominent intellectuals, including writer Ivan Klíma and journalist Bohumil Doležal, have slammed the new president for a comment on the media he made in last week’s inauguration speech. President Zeman promised he would combat parts of the media that he said manipulated opinion, even accusing them of brainwashing the public. In an open letter this week, his critics accused the president of indirectly threatening free speech. Others, though, don’t see it as a freedom of speech issue – at least not yet.

Orania, which has been shown at this year’s One World film festival of human rights documentaries, is a fascinating portrait of a controversial purely white town founded in 1991 by a group of Afrikaners averse to post-apartheid South Africa’s “rainbow nation”. Two decades later, Orania now has a population of around 1,000, and even its own currency.

In the last week, the websites of several financial institutions, media outlets and telephone service providers in the Czech Republic have become the target of sophisticated and coordinated cyber attacks. While the attacks, believed to have come from abroad, have overwhelmed and briefly paralyzed the sites in question, they have reportedly not caused significant damage. Nevertheless they have raised major concerns about the security of the Czech internet – which is something we discussed with Ondřej Filip, the CEO of CZ.NIC, the body that oversees

Beyond Wriezen, a gripping portrayal of three troubled young men as they attempt – with varying degrees of success – to build new lives after being released from a prison near Berlin, is among the 14 films in competition at the One World festival of human rights documentaries, which is currently running in Prague. I discussed the idea behind Beyond Wriezen with its Dutch director Daniel Abma, who in the past was a counsellor at Wriezen.

President Miloš Zeman took up his duties at Prague Castle on Monday in what is his first day in office as head of state. The chain-smoking, outspoken former prime minister has already started outlining his plans for the future; they range from establishing smoking-quarters in various parts of the castle to hoisting the EU flag on the castle premises, signaling a departure from the Eurosceptic policies of his predecessor.