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During the course of this weekend, the presidential residence of Lany near Prague is opening its doors to the public. The Prague Castle administration decided on the open door event to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the purchase of the Lany chateaux, which is the official residence of the head of state. During the course of the past 50 years, the baroque chateaux has only been opened for public viewing twice, during the months of March and September 2000.

A new poll conducted by the STEM agency has suggested that a majority of Czechs would like to see early elections. June's national election ended in a parliamentary stalemate, producing only a minority government that has not yet been tested in a vote of confidence. A total of 62 percent of those polled in the survey replied they were "in favour" of early elections, while 38 percent said they were "against". The current cabinet led by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has pledged to hold office only in an interim period and to push for elections in the spring of 2007. The government faces its confidence vote on October 4th, but it is widely expected not to pass. According to some observers, at most the government can expect an even split in the vote, leading to the government's resignation.

The foreign ministers of the Visegrad Four and the Baltic states have agreed to join forces in an effort to achieve a visa-free regime for travelling to the United States. At the instigation of Czech Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra they agreed in New York City on Thursday to form a so-called "Coalition for Visa Equality" within which they will coordinate future steps. Of the newest EU member countries, only Slovenian citizens are exempt from visas when travelling to the US.

The majority of members of the editorial staff at the Czech weekly "Respekt" have handed in their notice in protest of proposed changes at the weekly. The step was taken on Thursday. According to one source the daily has lost some 80 - 90 percent of its writers. Milos Cermak, strategic director at the paper, was brought in to introduce changes to try and turn around the weekly's flagging fortunes: for four years now the daily has operated at a loss. Mr Cermak told the Internet server idnes.cz he didn't understand the rationale behind the staff's decision, saying he had given guarantees that coming changes would not affect "continuity" of authorship, nor change the target readership.

Respekt was one of the first weeklies to emerge following the Velvet Revolution: it has roots in the samizdat - "illegal" writing published clandestinely in Communist Czechoslovakia prior to November 1989.