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When one half of the Čapek brothers villa was put up for sale by the relatives of Karel Čapek’s wife on May, some were worried that the famous writer’s residence, where many important works were written, would be sold to a private owner and closed off to the public for good. The Prague 10 district council put the concerns to rest on Monday when it voted to purchase the villa for 44 million crowns. The owner, Karel Scheinpflug, was willing to lower the original asking price of 55 million, in order to make the residence a public space. Radio Prague

City councillors in Prague have taken a significant step to try and curb disorderly conduct in the capital, passing an ordinance doubling the number of public areas where the consumption of alcohol will be banned. As of October 3, almost 860 spots in the capital will be off-limits for alcohol, including parks, areas near schools, and city squares.

Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok on Monday joined European and world leaders in congratulating German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her party’s third successive election victory. The election result spells continuity both for Germany and the EU, and commentators in the Czech Republic see it as a highly positive development. Jakub Janda, deputy director of the European Values think tank, gave Radio Prague his take on CDU’s election victory.

Switch on your TV here in the Czech Republic and you’ll see numerous familiar shows – Dr House, Bones, Downton Abbey – but they’re invariably dubbed into Czech; rarely are they shown in the original with subtitles. A group of secondary school students wants to change that, and have launched a new campaign to petition public and private broadcasters to stop dubbing their output.

President Miloš Zeman says the European Union will put pressure on Canada to lift visas for Czech citizens, reintroduced in 2009 following a rise in the number of Roma people seeking asylum. Mr Zeman made the comments in a speech to members of the Czech Republic’s permanent representation to the European Union, after meeting European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

Czech members of the European Parliament have a below par performance overall, according to a new study released on Thursday by the Prague-based think-tank European Values. On average, Czech MEPs seem to attend fewer meetings and participate less actively than their colleagues.

Tuesday was the cut-off line for registering in October’s general elections. Twenty-four parties and groupings have applied for registration, 17 of them fielding candidates in all 14 regions. Apart from the established parties voters will be able to choose from a vast number of small parties and groupings, who are hoping to ride on the wave of public discontent.

Viktoria Plzeň welcomed a star-studded Manchester City team on Tuesday for their first group game in this season’s Champions League. But while a spirited performance saw the West Bohemian club keep City at bay for the first half, the gulf in class told in the second and the visitors ultimately ran out comfortable 3:0 winners.

Hundreds of angry miners took to the streets of Ostrava on Tuesday to protest against planned wage cuts and growing job insecurity in the region. After a year of negotiations employers and trade union representatives are nowhere near reaching a deal on the 2014 to 2018 collective agreement, and there is a growing fear of layoffs in a region that already has over 100,000 unemployed.

The Forum 2000 conference concludes in Prague on Tuesday evening. Over the past three days, over 140 distinguished speakers from around world discussed a wide range of issues related to the event’s central theme this year: societies in transition. The closing panel featured the Dalai Lama and focused on, among other subjects, the experience of former Soviet bloc countries and the legacy of the late Václav Havel.