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This week, an art piece exhibited in front of Czech government headquarters caused a bit of a stir. An ice sculpture of the head of President Václav Klaus that slowly melted in the sun did not amuse officials, who had commissioned students to create artworks for a nearby garden. The offending artist, sculpting student Markéta Jáchimová, decided to display her piece despite orders not to.

The floodwaters have receded in Moravia, but now many parts of the region are inundated with mosquitoes. Various sources have reported as many as 60 bites a minute in places – not necessarily a danger, but a definite inconvenience as the summer tourist season begins.

The Czech Republic’s soccer players failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup, and, like Czech fans, will be watching the football extravaganza on television. But with their own team not there, who will Czechs be supporting in South Africa? Well, Slovakia has finished top of a poll asking just that question: that despite the facts the Slovaks perhaps don’t always cheer for their one-time fellow citizens.

Negotiators for three Czech political parties holding talks on forming the country’s next government have agreed on introducing tuition fees for the first time at public Czech universities. Experts have welcomed the proposal, which would make students pay the equivalent of nearly 500 US dollars per semester. However, it is very likely to meet vocal opposition.

European ministers have just agreed on a set of rules setting out the possibilities for patients in one country getting health treatment in another with national health services or insurance companies footing the bill. The rules look like they could put extra business the way of low cost, but efficient, health services, like that of the Czech Republic.

Thursday is the anniversary of the razing the village of Lidice by the Nazis in 1942, without doubt one of the darkest moments in modern Czech history. A planned film about the massacre has been delayed for some years due to funding problems. Now the film’s producer has been forced to announce yet another piece of bad news. Alice Nellis, who was originally meant to direct the film, has had to step back from the project due to illness.

The Pavel Koutecký prize for documentary film is awarded to “tireless observers of the world with the ability to convey their feelings and insights through film.” This year, the work chosen as best able to meet those criteria was “Country of Dreams”, by writer and director Martin Ryšavý. The film takes a hard look at the lives and tribulations of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic.

When the artist Alfons Mucha died in 1939, he left his masterpiece of 20 canvasses entitled the Slav Epic, to the City of Prague – but on the condition that an appropriate space be built for it. This has not happened to date and now the city would like to remove the work from the chateau in Moravský Krumlov where it is currently housed and install it in Prague’s Veletržní Palác. The Mucha family, however, is opposed, and is filing for an injunction against the city to keep the paintings where they are until they are given a permanent residence.

Czech beer is already being sold around the world in powdered form. Now the Czech research institute behind the recipe is seeking protection in the form of a worldwide patent. It believes the application will help it build on its existing success.

With just days remaining until the World Cup kicks off in South Africa, football fever is beginning to grip fans around the globe. The Czech Republic failed to qualify this year, but many will have fond memories of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, when supporters from Czechoslovakia were finally able to travel freely to a major soccer tournament.