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Prime Minister Milos Zeman is currently on a five-day official visit to India, where he is due to hold talks with top Indian political representatives on Wednesday. But he has already had several meetings with Indian businessmen and his delegation includes the ministers of finance, trade and industry and agriculture.

In reaction to a suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease in the region of lower Saxony of Germany, tighter controls have been imposed by the Czech authorities to prevent the possible spread of foot-and-mouth to the Czech Republic.

After lengthy talks on Friday night, the two leading Czech political parties agreed to continue with the so-called opposition agreement, a unique arrangement whereby the centre-right opposition Civic Democrats keep the centre-left minority Social Democrat government in power. According to the Civic Democrats, the government had failed to deliver on a number of promises, and many people expected the meeting on Friday night between the two parties to bring an end to the agreement. But the opposition agreement is still going strong and could well remain in place until next year's general elections. has been looking into the issue.

A Czech-sponsored resolution for the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, which condemns human rights violations in Cuba has met with disapproval from the United States. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who criticized the resolution earlier last week, telephoned Czech President Vaclav Havel to voice his deep concern over the way Czech diplomats have been handling the situation. has the story.

For about a year now, the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic has been gradually decreasing, which has been welcomed by politicians and the people alike. But at the same time, fresh statistics have revealed that the number of long-term unemployed people has been steadily increasing. has more.

March 10th of the year 1959 is a black day in the history of the Tibetan people their freedom uprising was crushed by the Chinese, their spiritual leader Dalaj Lama was forced to flee the country along with other supporters of the uprising, and the people of Tibet were subjected to the harsh conditions of a military regime.

The 8th annual "Days of European Film" festival opened in Prague on Thursday night. It features more than 35 films from 24 different European countries.

The word "Paraple" in Czech means an umbrella, but it can also be an abbreviation for paraplegic. And in this case it really is. Paraple is the name of a house in the outskirts of Prague which functions as a consultation centre for people confined to a wheel chair. Earlier this week the centre organized an "open day" to show people how their disabled fellow citizens live. went there and brings this report.

On Wednesday the cabinet appointed Jan Jarab as the new head of the government's Council for Human Rights. The Council acts as an advisory body to the Czech government. It's Mr Jarab's job to see that the rights of the country's ten million citizens are respected, and to advise the government when they're not. One of Mr Jarab's first tasks will be to submit a motion to the Justice Ministry, calling for an amendment to strengthen the legal rights of the mentally ill. and asked Mr Jarab to explain what was wrong with the current system.

The government decided on Wednesday to gradually fade out its transitional policy of regulating rent prices for privately owned property as well as for council flats. A new law proposed by the cabinet will allow owners to determine the level of rent for new tenants, and the authorities will only intervene when the two sides cannot agree. For current tenants an increase of 10 percent annually is allowed. has more: