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The singer-songwriter Bob Dylan is playing a concert at Prague’s O2 Arena on Friday night. One of the most significant figures in post-war US culture, the 69-year-old has performed five times in the Czech Republic since his first concert in the country in 1994. Dylan’s last concert in the capital was five years ago, while he performed in Ostrava in 2008. The British singer Elton John played at a sold-out O2 Arena on Thursday night.

Negotiators from the three parties aiming to form a centre-right government have agreed to work on a proposal for the direct election of the head of state. The leader of the right-wing Civic Democrats, Petr Nečas, said on Thursday that talks with the conservative party, TOP 09, and the Public Affairs party had resulted in agreement to draw up a proposal for citizens to elect the president in future. At the moment, the president is elected by members of both houses of parliament. Mr. Nečas said that he personally was in favour of safeguarding the current system but was prepared to accept a compromise proposal on direct elections. Party leaders have not agreed whether the president’s powers should be strengthened to accompany such a change. TOP 09 head Karel Schwarzenberg said the president’s powers should be revised but Mr. Nečas said he saw no need for such a change.

The outgoing governor of the Czech National Bank, Zdeněk Tůma, has denied seeking or being offered a job on a newly created body tasked with spotting flaws and upcoming risks for the European economy. According to the Czech business paper E15, Mr. Tůma was offered the chance to head the European Board for Systemic Risk. The body was created last year to help the European Union strengthen its capacity to pinpoint and react to major economic crises. But in a statement, the Czech bank governor denied seeking or being offered the post. The board was initially supposed to be part of the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank but the European Parliament is seeking to make it an independent institution.

The city of Ostrava has earmarked 2.0 billion crowns for investment in its flagship project to be selected as one of the European capitals of culture in 2015. City leaders agreed to set aside the investment for plans to transform the Červená Louka area of the city through construction of a concert hall, art gallery, music pavilion and new flats. The city estimates total costs linked to the capital of culture plans at around 3.75 billion crowns. Ostrava is competing with the west Bohemian city of Pilsen to be selected for the designation.