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The Old Town Hall in the centre of Prague is one of the city's main tourist attractions and a frequent venue for all kinds of different exhibitions. Currently underway is one which depicts the development of the Czech capital throughout its 1000 year-old history. Alena Skodova reports:

Czech firms are increasingly said to be engaging in a bitter struggle for confidential information. Planting bugs in a rival firm's office is reportedly becoming a widespread practice - at least according to the firms who specialize in finding the bugs. But somewhat amazing is the fact that the law does not consider planting bugs in itself to be a criminal offence. It's only against the law if the information is misused. Vaclav Pinkava is an IT manager in Prague.

Wednesday's uncompromising resolution by the Czech parliament on the post-war Benes decrees - which sanctioned the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after 1945 - immediately provoked an angry reaction from neighbouring Austria. Peter Westenthaler, parliamentary leader for Austria's right-wing Freedom Party, repeated his party's threat that it would not allow the Czech Republic into the European Union with the decrees, saying the issue was "as clear as a bell" for him and his colleagues. But the Freedom Party shares power with the

As you may know, the Prague Writers' Festival is currently in full flow. In terms of commercial success at least, the biggest name at the festival is undoubtedly the American author Elmore Leonard, whose first novel was published almost 50 years ago. He became a huge success in the 1980s and 90s when several of his novels were made into highly popular films, such as 'Get Shorty' and 'Jackie Brown', which was based on his novel 'Rum Punch'. From a young age Elmore Leonard has had the nickname "Dutch" - Ian Willoughby asked him why.

Will the European Union attempt to force the Czech Republic's hand over the delicate issue of the ethnic Germans expelled after World War Two? Some Austrian, German and Hungarian politicians are calling for the controversial decrees of the post war Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes, that formed the legal basis for the expulsions, to be revoked. Following months of uncertainty and conflicting signals from members of the European Commission and the European Parliament an increasing number of Czech politicians feel that the time has come for the

Prague has a brand new place to sit down and have a rest. Where previously there was a fence of corrugated iron around a mysterious construction site for what seemed like forever, a tiny but pleasant new park was opened to the public on Monday. It features a fountain, surrounded by a set of four sculptures by an Austrian artist of Czech origin, Anna Chromy. Alena Skodova was at the unveiling and has this report:

Last week the government approved the setting up of pre-school classes for children in areas with large Roma populations. The move is a bid to eradicate the huge gap in education between the Roma and majority Czech society. But as Rob Cameron reports now, not everyone believes it will have any great effect.

Czech taxpayers have to clothe and feed almost 17,000 civil servants. The number is growing steadily despite the promises of all governments to reduce it. With the general election looming the right-of-centre opposition parties have promised to lessen the burden on the taxpayer by cutting down the number of civil servants. But as Pavla Horakova reports now, observers doubt these latest promises will become reality after the elections.

April 22nd is Earth Day, observed since 1970 in more than 140 countries world-wide. In the Czech Republic Earth Day was first observed in 1990, a few months after the fall of the communist regime. And with every passing year, more Czechs are accepting their share of responsibility for the state of our Planet and their immediate environment. We asked environment activist Vojtech Kotecky of the environmental-group Duha or Rainbow how environmental groups in the Czech Republic mark the anniversary.

What you've just heard was the announcing of the book of the year award - the main category of the brand new "Magnesia Litera" Awards for best works of literature, presented for the first time on Saturday. Radio Prague's Pavla Horakova was a member of the jury and she joins me now in the studio.