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The ANO party of billionaire Andrej Babiš, a member of the centre-left ruling coalition, is fast gaining strength. According to the results of a March survey of voter preferences conducted by the STEM agency the party would now win general elections in the country, by far outstripping the present coalition leader –the Social Democratic Party. ANO, which got 18.6 percent in October’s early general elections would now get 28.9 percent of the vote, trailed by the Social Democrats which would only get 20.5 percent, a tenth of a percentage point less

Tim Burton is known for distinctive, stylised movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now aficionados can enjoy the director’s art at a new exhibition in Prague simply entitled Tim Burton and His World. Ahead of its opening, the filmmaker recalled a previous trip to the city – and taking inspiration from a Czech filmmaker.

Members of an expert commission discussing possible changes to a major church restitution bill were not able to reach a consensus in their meeting on Tuesday; in the end they agreed only to dissolve the commission itself. Through the commission, the coalition-leading Social Democrats had been trying to partially roll back the agreement reached between the Church and State: so far, without success.

The Czech Republic has a large Vietnamese community and today Vietnamese-run open-all-hours corner stores are to be found throughout the country. Indeed, a new report by market analysts Nielsen says that one fifth of Czech food shops are now Asian run. But what does the boom in Vietnamese stores mean for consumers? That’s a question I put to leading Czech food writer Petra Pospěchová.

The Czech government is not planning to provide any special assistance to the Czech community in Ukraine. The decision comes after around 40 families with Czech roots from the Volhynia region asked to be relocated to their old country due to the turmoil in Ukraine. But the Czech government believes they face no immediate threat.

Events off the pitch rather than on it have grabbed the headlines in newspapers following the outbreak of serious violence at a top football league clash at the weekend. Czech football authorities are suggesting that police should be ready in grounds to tackle trouble and are also looking for foreign inspiration how to ban hooligans from matches.

Former prominent official of Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime, Miroslav Štěpán, has died at the age of 68. As leader of the Community Party in Prague, Mr Šťěpán authorized violent suppression of opposition protests in the regime’s final years; after its fall, he became one of few Communists convicted of abuse of office. Miroslav Štěpán later unsuccessfully attempted a political comeback, never giving up his hard-line views.

For the first time in a decade, the Czech Republic’s population declined last year. Newly released officials figures show that a total of 10,512,400 people lived in the country in 2013, some 3,700 fewer than in the previous year. The slight decline has been attributed to fewer births – but also a fall in fresh immigrants and a rise in the number of people leaving the country. I discussed the statistics with demographer Tomáš Kučera from Prague’s Charles University.

A monument to fallen soldiers, recently unveiled at a major Prague cemetery, has provoked some strong reactions from Czech politicians and other public figures. The group behind the monument, which bears Russian and Czech inscriptions, says it is tribute to all soldiers who have died in modern-era peacekeeping missions. But some believe the memorial also celebrates troops who invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Containing thousands of human bones arranged in various shapes, including a chandelier and coat of arms, an ossuary outside the Central Bohemian town of Kutná Hora is perhaps the Czech Republic’s most ghoulish tourist attraction. However, the “bone church” now faces extensive repair work – raising worries over how to reassemble some formations afterwards.