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The drawn-out conflict between the largest Czech health insurer VZP and the Prague Proton Therapy Centre on the validity of a multi-billion crown agreement may soon come to a head. The anti-corruption police confirmed on Monday that they had filed charges of abuse of office against an unnamed person involved in the case.

There was exciting news for Czech soccer fans on Monday evening with the announcement that Pavel Vrba will become national team manager in January. The highly respected coach is free to take the post after a buy-out clause was activated in his contract with Viktoria Plzeň, the club he led in 2011 to their first ever league title and a berth in the Champions League, a “double” he repeated this year.

One the newer annual events during the commemoration of the Czech day of Democracy and Freedom on 17 November – the Memory of the Nation award ceremony – took place on Sunday. The Post Bellum historical society, which collects historical testimonies from first-hand witnesses of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, gave the award to four people this year.

On Saturday Czechs around the country will be encouraged to take part in the first-ever nation-wide collection of food for the poor. The event, co-organized by the Czech Federation of Food Banks and Business for Society, a platform that encourages cooperation between the corporate and non-profit sectors, comes in response to the growing number of people in need.

There was some relief a few months back when, after its longest recession ever, the Czech economy finally registered growth. However, hopes that a corner had been turned may have been a little over optimistic; preliminary figures released on Thursday suggest that the third quarter saw a fresh GDP contraction of 0.5 percent.

Recent violent attacks targeting Czech fugitive Radovan Krejčíř in Johannesburg, South Africa, have caused an outcry among local residents. On Tuesday, a bomb explosion at Mr Krejčíř’s shop killed two people, prompting a petition asking the country’s authorities to extradite him to the Czech Republic where he faces jail. Since his arrival in South Africa in 2007, the alleged crime boss has been linked to at least 12 deaths in what is perceived as a struggle for the control of the underworld. I discussed Mr Krejčíř’s situation with the Czech ambassador

Vladimír Remek is the only Czech to have flown in space, as a crew member on the Soviet Soyuz 28 mission in 1978. Thirty-five years later, Mr. Remek, currently an MEP for the Communist Party, is returning to Russia, with the news on Wednesday that the Czech president has signed the document required to make him ambassador to Moscow.

Members of an expert team from Palacký University conducting research on the island of Borneo revealed recently they had uncovered a new species of plant belonging to the Thismiaceae family. Highly-unusual in appearance, the initial specimen was actually found by accident, when one of the members of the team slipped and fell, only to notice the plant growing nearby. The specimen was gathered for research, and later additional samples were found.

Typhoon Haiyan, which made landfall on Friday, has affected more than 10 million people in the Philippines, with thousands of fatalities and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes. Humanitarian organizations in the Czech Republic began preparations to help the victims already over the weekend. A number of NGOS have released almost a million crowns in total from their emergency funds. We spoke to Radomír Špinka, the deputy director of ADRA Czech Republic, about how the organization will be aiding the international relief efforts.

Czech President Miloš Zeman has in the past suggested caustically that his day wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t insult at least one person. Well on Monday, the president – who is recovering from a knee injury – inadvertently insulted a good many by suggesting in a radio interview it would be “undignified” to name the country’s next prime minister from a wheelchair.