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The Czech Security Information Service (BIS) issued a press release on Monday in which it says it cooperated with foreign partners in identifying, analysing and disabling servers in the Czech Republic and the wider world, which Hezbollah was using for cybernetic espionage.

The communal and senatorial elections were seen as a test of strength of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ ANO party, which has dominated Czech national politics since winning last year’s parliamentary elections by a large margin. Although ANO scored in 11 big cities, its loss in the Czech capital, which Babiš considered all-important, has soured the party’s victory.

The Ano party of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has won the municipal elections in all regional capitals except Prague – where the opposition Civic Democrats and Pirates took first and second, respectively – and Liberec. The big losers of the day, in both the municipal and Senate races, were the Social Democrats and Communists.

On Friday afternoon ballot boxes across the Czech Republic opened up for people to elect their municipal representatives. Furthermore, a third of the country’s regions are in the process of electing 27 new senators into the upper chamber of Parliament.

October 5 is the 80th anniversary of the abdication of Edvard Beneš as president of Czechoslovakia. The move came just days after the Munich Agreement, under which the country was abandoned by its nominal allies and lost a third of its territory. However, it was not Beneš’s final abdication.

The Czech Republic’s communal elections, which will take place this Friday and Saturday, differ from their presidential and parliamentary equivalents in that citizens of other EU member states are also allowed to vote. This includes those living in the country on a temporary basis. However, interest in political engagement seems low among foreigners living in the country, with only a few thousand deciding to register.

A search is on for one of the world‘s most venomous snakes, the green mamba, which escaped from its owner in Prague’s Hlubočepy district on Tuesday night. Prior to its disappearance the snake bit its presumed owner, a thirty-year-old-woman who remains in hospital in an induced coma.

A team of Czech archaeologists have made a remarkable discovery at Abusir, near Cairo, unearthing a unique burial complex of an Egyptian dignitary dating back to the fifth Dynasty of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The limestone tomb is located in the centre of a pyramid field where only members of the royal family and the highest state dignitaries of the time were buried.

The European Council on Tuesday approved a proposal that will allow EU member states that have a problem with carousel tax fraud to apply a generalized reversal of VAT liability. This is something Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has fought for for four and a half years on the argument that use of reverse charge could save the EU a large part of the around 170 billion euros lost every year in unpaid VAT.

The Czech Republic is gearing up for celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. In Prague month-long birthday celebrations have already kicked off and will culminate in a gala weekend on October 27-28, featuring a military parade, concerts and outdoor happenings. I spoke to Vladimir Bláha, one of the co-organizers of the celebrations, about what’s in the pipeline.