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Czech-based computer anti-virus giant Avast opened up new offices in Prague on Thursday night. The company, which employs around 700, mostly in the Czech capital, has moved into five floors of offices in the Pankrác district covering 15,000 square metres. The offices are inspired by Silicon Valley with a free restaurant for employees, gym, and even cinema. Avast software protects around 20 percent of all computers worldwide outside China.

The Czech government on Wednesday approved moves by the European Commission to increase the representation of women on the supervisory boards of big companies. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on his Twitter account that the vote was not unanimous. The European Commission proposal is being piloted by Czech Commissioner Věra Jourová and was presented by her in Prague last month. The measure calls for at least 40 percent of women to be placed on management boards. That would be a major change for most Czech companies.

One of the three Syrian families who were granted asylum in the Czech Republic and whose children were to receive treatment within the Medevac aid programme has departed for Germany, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec reported on Friday. The minister said they left the country shortly after arriving in Prague and it was not possible for the authorities to keep them here against their will. They were the first of a larger group of 15 Syrian families selected by specialists from camps in Jordan in order to give the children medical care which cannot be administered inside the refugee camps. The first three children who arrived had a heart defect, muscle dystrophia and severe burns.

A Czech delegation led by the Deputy Speaker of the lower house of Parliament Petr Gazdik was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for over four hours on Thursday morning for no obvious reason, the ctk news agency reports. The delegation which arrived on a government plane and was not allowed to re-board the aircraft included defense ministry officials and members of the Czechoslovak Association of Legionaries. It was bound for Ulyanovsk where they were to unveil a memorial to Czechoslovak legionaries. Mr. Gazdik said they had been given no explanation for why they were being held up and described it as a serious diplomatic incident. The Czech embassy in Moscow has sent the Russian authorities a protest note. The delegation was allowed to continue on its way shortly after mid-day.

Police detained twelve foreigners, including Afghan, Syrian and Gambian nationals, during a raid at Prague’s Main Station on Friday, the police spokesman Jan Daněk told the Czech News Agency. Policemen were checking selected trains in search of illegal immigrants. In the first five months of this year, the Foreign Police uncovered 2418 illegal foreigners in the country, which is 712 more than during the same period last year. The number of people from Kosovo, Syria and Afghanistan who tried to illegally cross the border to Germany has also increased.

The duo Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta, representing the Czech Republic at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, have little chance of winning. Bookmakers see the Czechs, along with representatives of San Marino and Portugal, as the least probable winners, putting their odds at 1 to 970. The Czech duo is representing the country with a song called Hope Never Dies. According to bookmakers, Sweden’s Mans Zelmerlow is the most likely winner. Russia’s Polina Gagarina is listed as second favourite.

The Czech National Bank has decided to continue intervening against the Czech crown to keep the exchange rate at around 27 crowns per euro, the bank’s spokesman Tomáš Zimmerman said after a meeting of the bank board on Thursday. The bank will also leave interest rates unchanged at all-time lows. The base interest rate is 0.05 percent. The Czech National Bank launched currency interventions in November 2013 to head off the danger of deflation and weakened economic growth.

The Czech National Bank has fined ČSOB bank for refusing to accept or exchange damaged notes, iDnes.cz reported. The CZK 300,000 fine comes three years after the central bank ordered ČSOB to take in damaged notes following complaints from customers of Česká pošta post offices, which with ČSOB cooperates. The Czech National Bank sent staff to attempt to use damaged notes at branches of Česká pošta, which runs ČSOB’s Era and Poštovní spořitelna accounts, and around a third were rejected.

Trade unions at the Czech national carrier Czech Airlines have cancelled plans to go on strike next Thursday over lay-offs and salary cuts. The decision came after the firm's management promised on Friday to “limit the impact” of the restructuring. Earlier this week, the troubled firm announced salary cuts and massive layoffs; some 170 of the airline’s 400 cabin crew members are set to lose their jobs under the plan. However, the agreement will not affect the basic features of the plan, Václav Řehoř, the head of Czech Airlines’ mother company, Czech Aeroholding, said.

An outdoor exhibition entitled Signal Prague recalling last year’s Signal festival of light art in the capital and sister project Czech The Light, which brought video mapping and installations to the regions, has opened on the capital’s Na Příkopě St. The event is also meant to serve as an invitation to this year’s Signal festival, which takes place on the third weekend of October. In 2013 the first such free festival was attended by around 250,000 people.