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Královská Kaple, the King’s Chapel, was part of the history of the city of Brno for 600 years. But at the beginning of the 20th century it was pulled down to make way for modernisation. The destruction caused protest, and the progressive city planners were made to agree that one day they would resurrect the building. It might have been a long time coming, but now Brno City Hall has announced it will be making good on its 101-year-old promise.

The Czech caretaker government has approved far reaching plans for how the country could develop over the next decades. The controversial development plan earmarks where strategic infrastructure could be placed. While the government insists no final decisions have been taken on what goes where, critics beg to differ.

A week after Ottawa brought back visas for Czech citizens over the large numbers of Czech Romanies seeking asylum in Canada, the Czech government put out a report on the state of Romany communities in the Czech Republic for 2008. The report is bleak: Czech-Romany relations are bad, it says, and will be difficult to fix.

Imagine being invited - as a member of a stadium audience – to perform on stage with one of the world’s greatest bands. It could never happen, right? But that’s exactly how it was for a trio of Czech musicians at a U2 concert in Berlin last weekend. Incredibly, U2 singer Bono invited the Czechs – all strangers to him – to come up for the song Angel of Harlem.

One of the country’s largest travel agencies, Tomi Tour, declared bankruptcy on Friday, a development that left around 3,000 Czech tourists temporarily stranded at a number of vacation sites and thousands of others without holiday plans. Just a week earlier, Tomi Tour executive Václav Fischer had assured clients they could look forward to their holidays “without worries”. A few days later it was a different story.

A Czech heavy metal star has got himself into trouble over the lyrics of the title song of his band’s latest album “Deratizer” or exterminator. The refrain refers to stealing gypsies and suggests an exterminator be employed. The rock singer has defended himself against accusations of racism.

Monday marks exactly 40 years since the moment man first set foot on the moon. At that time, in 1969, Czechoslovakia was one of the only Soviet satellite states broadcasting the event. Among those relaying history live to the nation of 15 million on national TV was Antonín Vítek, one of the country’s leading experts in cosmology. He recalled the day for me in his office in the Academy of Sciences.

The 2009 Retro Prague rally of vintage automobiles set out Thursday on the occasion of its 10th anniversary jubilee. The first leg was just the thing for romantic old-timers: a night-time drive around Prague’s historic centre in which almost five dozen vehicles took part, some of which were truly ancient. Today I spoke with the rally’s organiser, Ladislav Pakosta, who is in Příbram awaiting the arrival of the next leg, which will be crawling into town at 20-40 kph.

Prague City Hall’s legal battle against taxi drivers spilled over into the streets of the capital on Thursday, as taxi drivers clashed with police over a lucrative taxi-stand on Old Town Square. Two taxi drivers were arrested on the spot, two were taken to hospital and several of them may be charged with attacking a civil servant.

The truffle, often referred to as the king of all fungi, has long been considered one of the world’s finest delicacies - found in five-star restaurants around the world. In the Czech Republic the edible fungus is extremely rare, but that is changing. The reason is due changes in temperature and humidity: just recently samples of the rare fungus were uncovered in Moravia.