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In recent months, a series of violent rallies targeting Romany communities have been seen in the Czech Republic. Besides known far-right activists, the protestors have included large numbers of ordinary locals frustrated with what they see as the authorities’ inability to deal with high crime levels and other problems plaguing Romany-dominated districts. Now, the Czech intelligence service has warned that anti-Romany sentiments in mainstream society could become a more serious threat than far-right extremism. I discussed the report with sociologist

Czech companies lose enormous amounts of money annually due to their staff spending time on Facebook and other websites instead of working, claims a freshly released study. Indeed, the report’s findings suggest that the average office worker in the Czech Republic is devoting around an hour a day to mucking about on the internet.

Investigators have new evidence in the case against American national Kevin Dahlgren, suspected of having killed four relatives in the Czech Republic in May. According to public broadcaster Czech TV, which acquired documentation a U.S. court, a pair of blood-stained shorts was found in the suspect’s luggage after he was arrested in the United States. Whether the evidence will pave the way for extradition, however, remains an open question.

After 22 years, the Czech capital’s main English language newspaper, The Prague Post, has disappeared for good from the city’s newsstands. Following publication last Wednesday, the weekly’s publisher announced that from now on it will exist only on the internet. To find out what led to the decision, I spoke to the Post’s new managing editor Raymond Johnston.

The Czech Republic at the weekend saw a sweltering heat wave. With temperatures reaching the mid to high 30s on Saturday and Sunday, many understandably headed to reservoirs, ponds, and pools to cool off, if not for the whole day, than for at least a few hours.

The UN Human Rights’ Committee has asked the Czech government to close down a pig farm located on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp for Romanies. Built in the 1970s, the farm has been a source of embarrassment to all post-1989 governments, but despite bringing the country international disgrace, it is still there and likely to remain so.

Friday marks the 30th anniversary of the day Czechoslovak athlete Jarmila Kratochvílová broke the world record in the women’s 800 metres. Remarkably, the time Kratochvílová set in Munich in 1983 has never been bettered, becoming one of the longest standing records in world athletics.

It currently looks unlikely that Czech MPs will approve the Rusnok cabinet in a vote in the lower house in two weeks’ time. President Miloš Zeman has hinted that if it fails, he could give the former centre-right coalition a chance to form the next cabinet. But the president has laid down a condition: before he even considers that, he wants to see notarized signatures of a majority of MPs pledging to back such a cabinet. I asked commentator Erik Best for his reading of Mr Zeman’s latest move.

A new demographic projection released on Tuesday makes for bracing reading. It suggests that the population of the Czech Republic will fall from today’s 10.5 million to in the region of 7.7 million by the year 2100. As the percentage of elderly people shoots up, the birth rate is set to fall markedly – a problem that demographers say cannot be solved by an influx of foreigners.

Changes of government in the Czech Republic are generally accompanied by a shake-up in the country’s civil service. Although the Rusnok caretaker government has not yet won a vote of confidence in the lower house, a change-of-guard in the top and middle ranks of civil service administration has already been launched. So how politicized is the country’s civil service and how is that affecting the running of the state? A question I put to political analyst Jiří Pehe.