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As the new Czech government was sworn in on Monday, ministers have started to reveal their main policy goals. The new cabinet pledged to lead the country into the European Union and its policies will have to be subordinated to this goal. The new team will also have to start tackling problems that their predecessors either failed to resolve, ignored or exacerbated by their policies, mainly in the economic sphere. Vladimir Tax reports.

The international Bregenz Festival on Austria's Lake Constance opened on Wednesday, with calls for understanding following a series of political disputes. The Czech Republic and its culture is a major theme at this year's festival, which opened with Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's opera Julietta. And as Radio Austria International's Kerry Skyring reports now, the performance on Lake Constance was an attempt to smooth the troubled waters between the two countries.

Who does not hate this sound? Yes, it's a dentist's drill and it seems that Czechs will have to hear this sound more often than they'd like, as tooth decay, especially among children, is getting worse and worse. Pavla Horakova has the details.

The Czech air force has been substantially scaled down over the last decade - from around 1,000 trained pilots in 1993 to 400 today. The reduction is part of a general package of reform, but many pilots have taken the decision to leave themselves, disillusioned with deteriorating conditions and frequent reorganisation. A new study commissioned by the force makes depressing reading - last year alone 60 pilots chose to go. Most of them were older and more experienced - just the sort of people the air force cannot afford to lose. So why the brain

Events this week in the town of Crhov in Southern Moravia will be recorded in the history books as the worst week in the town's history. This and several other towns and villages in the region of Blansko were hit by sweeping floods, that caused millions of crowns of damage and claimed two lives. Experts say such floods occur just once in 250 years. At the same time, paradoxically, other places in Moravia are suffering from drought.

What you hear there is traditional Navajo Indian chanting incorporated into modern music. Punk rock fans may recognize the group Blackfire - a traditionally influenced, politically driven group comprised of thee Navajo Indian siblings - Jeneda, Clayson and Klee Bennaly . Born into the heart of a political land dispute area called Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation the Bennaly family is driven by the need to save as much as it can from its precious legacy and to spread awareness of traditions and a way of life that are being stiffled by the demands

The leader of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, Vaclav Klaus, speaking to reporters on Monday after the party published a report on the recent parliamentary elections. The elections were a disaster for Mr Klaus's party - after months of running neck-and-neck with the ruling Social Democrats, the June poll saw the opposition party score their worst ever election result. And as Rob Cameron reports now, the Civic Democrats have some soul-searching to do.

On Saturday night, the creme de la creme of the Czech Republic's film industry as well as important political figures including Czech President Vaclav Havel came together to attend the closing ceremony of the 37th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. During the festival's ten-day run - from July 4th to July 13th - a total of 139.120 viewers visited the West Bohemian spa town to watch the 292 films that ranged from documentaries to feature films. Dita Asiedu was at the festival and is back to tell us more about the winners of the 2002 Karlovy

President Havel appointed a new centre-left cabinet on Monday, exactly a month after the Social Democrats won the elections. The Social Democrats will occupy 11 of the 17 seats in the new cabinet, the remainder being divided between their coalition partners, the centrist Christian Democrats and the liberal Freedom Union. So what does the new government look like? My colleague Rob Cameron joins me in the studio now, I gather there are a lot of new faces in the cabinet Rob?

In the midst of Europe's latest food scandal, the Czech State Veterinary Office on Thursday announced an immediate ban on poultry imports from all EU member states. The ban was imposed in the wake of a discovery of beef proteins in poultry imported to the UK from the Netherlands. Josef Holejsovsky, the head of the State Veterinary Office, explains that a broad ban is not expected to remain in place for very for long.