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Figures released by the website Netmonitor show that local search engine Seznam.cz continues to be the most visited site on the Czech internet. In fact, last year the site – which was set up in 1996 – had over six million users. But how has Seznam.cz managed to stay ahead of the powerful Google, which has long been the top search site in many countries? That’s a question I put to technology journalist Petr Kočí.

A new three-party government is just about to be sworn in. However, even before it takes up office, coalition leaders are already butting heads. The Social Democrats want their choice to be a deputy under ANO chief Andrej Babiš at the Ministry of Finance, in line with long-standing tradition. He insists he alone will decide on who gets the job.

Almost a quarter of a century after the fall of the Iron Curtain, some patterns of behaviour have continued as if the event never took place. A study of deer in the Šumava National Park shows that populations on both the Czech and German sides of the former barrier behave as if it is still there.

President Milos Zeman paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan over the weekend, meeting with Czech troops serving in the country under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and holding talks with his Afghan counterpart President Hamid Karzai.

Amidst growing concern over mounting street violence in Ukraine, the Czech Republic has urged President Yanukovych to de-escalate the stand-off, release detained activists and establish a genuine dialogue with the opposition.

Three months after general elections, the final obstacles on the path to the appointment of a new Czech government have been cleared. The nascent coalition have mollified the president by passing a civil service bill, while he has evidently swallowed his doubts about some cabinet nominees and will finally make them ministers in less than a week’s time.

The Czech agency that administers the files of the communist-era secret police has clashed with a European network of similar organisations. The latter has suspended the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, questioning the past of some of its advisors. However, the Czechs are fighting back – and say they will quit the network themselves if it does not back down.

The Czech lower house is debating a bill overhauling the rules for the employment of civil servants. Its approval in a first round of debate is a condition laid down by President Zeman for appointing ANO leader Andrej Babiš minister. But the legislation has met with fierce resistance from the opposition, who warn it will end a long-standing ban preventing former communist secret police collaborators from holding government positions.

Top Czech tennis star Tomáš Berdych is playing for a place in his second Grand Slam final after getting further in the Australian Open men’s singles than ever before. But Berdych’s personal success could have a downside for his country.

Newly appointed Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka on Monday presented an official list of ministerial candidates to the president, expressing confidence that the nominations would be accepted and his government would be up and running by the end of the month.