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Three of the European Union’s top leaders made heartfelt calls in Prague today for the world’s biggest economic and trading power not to turn its back on its basic values under pressure from the world financial crisis. Czech Premier, Mirek Topolánek, EU President, José Manuel Barroso, and the EU’s Economic Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, were in the Czech capital for a conference to discuss the success and lessons learnt from the EU’s biggest ever enlargement five years ago.

Britney Spearsová, Angela Merkelová, Venus Williamsová – this is how some of the world’s most famous women are referred to in Czech. The –ová suffix is widely used in Czech to denote it’s a woman you’re talking about. Czech women who wanted to ditch the -ová and use the masculine form of a surname were only allowed to do so as recently as 2004, and this is still very much the exception to the rule. A row erupted over whether the –ová form was outdated last week when a TV sports commentator refused to use it. In light of the uproar, I spoke to one

The papers are awash with speculation that Air Force One could be touching down in Prague in a few weeks’ time, as President Barack Obama prepares to visit the Czech Republic. The word on the street is that President Obama will stop off in Prague following the NATO summit in France and Germany at the beginning of April, for an informal meeting with leaders of the European Union.

Prague is currently hosting an exhibition reflecting the impact of Tibet’s culture on the rest of the world, particularly on the Czech Republic. The exhibition called Tibet in our mind shows traditional Tibetan art as well as Tibet-inspired works by Czech artists. We asked the exhibition’s curator Zuzana Ondomišiová to tell us what’s on display and why Czechs are so fascinated by all things Tibetan.

The city of Chomutov in North Bohemia is under fire over a controversial new method of reclaiming debts owed by low-income families – sending bailiffs to recover the money as soon as they receive it as social benefits. Most of the families are from the Romany or gypsy minority, and the method has ignited a new row over the integration of the Roma into Czech society.

Astonishing as it might seem, a small Czech company is red-faced after causing an international Internet collapse in an incident which has underlined the World Wide Web’s fragility.

Two of the Czech Republic’s most famous footballers, Pavel Nedvěd of Juventus Turin and Chelsea’s Petr Čech faced off for the first time on Wednesday in the Champions League. The closely-played match saw Chelsea clinch the narrowest of wins ahead of the second-leg on March 10. Nevertheless, for Czech fans the match-up between Nedvěd and Čech was something of a special event, not least because the Juve midfielder has said he will soon retire from the game.

Several respected newspapers and magazines such as The Economist and the Financial Times have in recent weeks reported on the severe economic problems facing Eastern Europe without properly distinguishing between the region’s individual states. The Czech National bank on Tuesday voiced strong objections to what it described as “misleading and inaccurate” coverage of the state of the Czech Republic’s economy by the foreign media; coverage they say is harming the country.

In a year which will commemorate students’ role in the Velvet Revolution that brought down the communist regime twenty years ago, a solemn ceremony today marked the last attempt by students to prevent the Communist seizure of power in 1948.

How do you imagine the soundtrack to an exhibition called ‘Decadence’ would sound? Czech musicians Monika Načeva and David Cajthaml were asked to create just that – a piece of modern music to accompany an exhibit dedicated to the excesses of the fin de siecle. So what did they do? They produced an 18-minute reworking of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘la decadanse’. The vinyl was launched in Prague on Tuesday, Rosie Johnston was there: