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Prague's Jewish Museum has opened a new building which is to house its offices and much needed workshops for restoring the exhibits. was present for the occasion.

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If you listen to debates in the Czech parliament, you will probably conclude that public speaking is not a Czech speciality. But things may be changing. A nationwide competition has just ended in which Czech secondary school pupils stood up and tested their rhetorical skills. To make things even more difficult, they were speaking not in their native Czech but in English. Radio Prague's went along to the final to meet the organizers and participants.

The Czech Republic has a new finance minister, the third in less than three years. Several urgent tasks lie ahead of him, including painful public expenditure reform. But what can the new minister really achieve, a year before general elections? More from .

Easter customs vary from country to country throughout the Christian world: in the Czech Republic many of the customs - such as painting eggs and whipping girls to ensure fertility - actually pre-date the birth of Christ. Others are based in Christianity: in some Czech villages boys shake rattles in place of church bells, which, legend has it, have flown to Rome in mourning of Christ's death. Pagan and early Christian rituals have survived 2000 years of social and cultural change, and continue to thrive, as reports:

The government's human rights commissioner, Jan Jarab, has called for the establishment of a new institution to monitor conditions in orphanages, old peoples' homes, psychiatric clinics, prisons and other establishments. asked him why he considered it necessary to create yet another organisation in the Czech Republic to protect human rights.