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Several hundred flight attendants at the Czech national carrier, Czech Airlines, were expected to strike next Thursday in protest over extensive layoffs and wage cuts. That was averted when on Friday afternoon the company announced it and had reached a deal with trade unions, saying fewer employees would be let go.

The new European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker received a relatively strong endorsement from MEPs on Wednesday, less than ten days before it assumes office on November 1. The new commission includes the Czech Republic’s Věra Jourová - the commissioner for justice, consumer rights and gender equality – who, along with other members, will face tough tasks ahead.

The world-renowned Chinese writer Yan Lianke arrived in Prague this week to collect the annual Franz Kafka prize. The 55-year old writer has become the fourteenth recipient of the international literary award, which is given to authors whose work appeals to readers across different cultures. Among the previous winners were Austria’s Elfriede Jelinek and British playwright Harold Pinter, both of whom went on to win the Nobel Prize in literature the same year.

Members of a police pyrotechnical team this week reached the epicentre of a blast which destroyed a munitions depot in Vrbětice, near Zlín, last Thursday. Two people remain missing but it will be some time before a proper search can be conducted in the devastated area.

Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnický has come under fire over his role as a detective in a popular TV crime show. An actor by profession, Mr Stropnický has remained on the cast of the series even after he was appointed minister. But his character’s investigation of drug smuggling by Czech troops from Afghanistan in the show’s latest episode has sparked a lively debate in the lower house on whether this is an appropriate part to play for the defence minister.

Screening was introduced at the Czech Republic’s five international airports on Tuesday morning to counter the growing threat from Ebola. The checks, ordered by the country’s chief hygiene officer, range from filling in a form to undergoing a medical check-up at the airport.

This Wednesday, the annual Bollywood festival of Indian film gets underway in Prague. Now in its 12th year, the festival offers a selection of classical as well as contemporary movies from India and Pakistan, along with a rich accompanying programme. The subtitle of this year’s event is “Children of Bollywood.” I spoke to Radim Špaček, one of the festival’s organizers, and first asked him about the choice of the main theme:

The Czech centre-left coalition government has conserved a comfortable majority in the Senate after 18 of their candidates won seats in the upper chamber of Parliament over the weekend. With 10 newly elected senators, the senior coalition Social Democrats were the most successful party at the polls. However, less than 17 percent of voters cast their ballots in the second round of the election, the lowest turnout on record.

Ghana is readying to lodge a formal complaint with the Czech Foreign Ministry over the alleged poor treatment of one of its citizens during an Ebola scare last week. Last Saturday, medical workers and the police tracked the student, who had visible symptoms of a bad cold, to Prague’s main station, after he and three others allegedly failed to await health clearance at the city’s international airport. The fear was the student might be infected with Ebola.

Police on Wednesday formally charged a 26-year-old woman in a brutal knife attack at a high school in Žďár nad Sázavou this week which claimed the life of a 16-year-old boy, and left three people injured. The same day, the head of a psychiatric facility which had earlier released the suspect (a schizophrenic who had already once threatened children at knifepoint) resigned. The government is looking into the case, and the president himself weighed in, saying mental illness should not be treated with outpatient care. In Žďár nad Sázavou, meanwhile,