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Czech police’s organized crime squad has uncovered a case of widespread police corruption, arresting six suspects, four of them from within the ranks of police. One current and three former police officers from Brno’s economic crimes unit are believed to have covered up major cases of economic crime in return for large sums of money for years. An ongoing investigation suggests the network is much larger and its criminal activities may have gone far beyond that.

The former leader of the Czech Social Democrats Jiří Paroubek has announced plans to leave the party and establish a new political group. Should his intentions materialize, he would be the second Social Democrat leader to do so, after Miloš Zeman whose own political project caused significant harm to the Social Democrats in the last general elections. But in Czech politics, problems with former party leaders are not unusual.

Sun, sea and pot – that’s how many young Czechs envision their summer break. However the popularity of marihuana among Europe’s biggest consumers is getting many of them into trouble with the Croatian authorities where all drugs are strictly banned.

The Czech Constitutional Court has just issued a verdict in favor of a mother fighting to prevent her ten-year-old son – a perfectly healthy boy -from being returned to a psychiatric hospital. The boy had already spent six months there during his parents’ custody battle on the basis of a previous court ruling. The court dealt with the case at the instigation of the boy’s father who demanded that the boy be taken from his mother’s care because she was biased against him and was having a bad influence on the child.

A continuing standoff between ecological activists and loggers in the Šumava National Park is continuing to heat up. For more than a fortnight now activists have been chaining themselves to trees slated for felling – stressing that logging commissioned by the park in protected areas is illegal. Under existing regulations, they have argued, trees in the nature reserve must be allowed to decay naturally. The park management has countered by saying that only felling will prevent further locations from being devastated by the bark-beetle. The dispute

Spain were undeniably the favourites to win their fifth UEFA European Under-19 Championship title going into Monday’s final – and in the end their team persevered, defeating the Czech Republic 3:2. Despite the loss, most would agree the Czech team gave the Spanish squad a run for the money. The Czechs repeatedly threatened, scored the opener and led twice, before Spain came from behind to seal the victory.

The Czech cartoon character Krtek, or Little Mole, has been given a hero’s welcome back home after spending two weeks in space. The American astronaut Andrew Feustel, who took Krtek to space aboard the Endeavour space shuttle, arrived in Prague last week with his family, and is now touring the Czech Republic with Krtek to promote science and technology among young Czechs.

August 1st has brought into force an amendment to the road law which aims to simplify the penal points system in place by being more tolerant of minor offenses while increasing punishment for dangerous driving. The new measures are the second phase of a reform aimed at making Czech roads safer.

Two years ago, representatives of 46 governments gathered at the former Nazi concentration camp in Terezín, an hour’s drive north of Prague. Among the many pledges contained within the pages of the Terezín Declaration was a promise to expedite the return of private property seized from Jews during the Holocaust and still not returned. Many descendants, however, are still waiting to get their family's property back.

It has been five years since the bill on registered partnership between gay couples came into force in the Czech Republic. During the period, more than 1,200 gay and lesbian couples in the country formed civil unions. While most within the gay community welcomed the original legislation as an important milestone, many still feel it didn’t go far enough as it failed to recognise gay marriage or adoption rights. Radio Prague spoke to Zdeněk Sloboda, a representative of PROUD, a Czech initiative promoting human rights.