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If you've ever been in Prague in the summer, it's extremely likely that you will have seen a man swallowing swords and banging six-inch nails into his nostrils, near the bottom of Wenceslas Square. His name is Emil Ondracek, and - incredibly - he swallows the swords over half a metre into his body. Mr Ondracek, who usually wears a t-shirt of the heavy metal band Metallica, calls himself a Czech fakir.

On Monday three armed men held up a shell-proof vehicle carrying money from a Prague bank and stole more than 100 million crowns in what is described as the biggest robbery in Czech history. There are only a few clues - but the police have immediately started an investigation to track down the robbers. Alena Skodova reports:

The crisis within the governing coalition continues after Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla asked the junior coalition partner - the right-of-centre Freedom Union - to give up its three cabinet posts on Monday. On Monday evening, the heads of the coalition parties met President Vaclav Havel and tried to find a solution to the crisis. Pavla Horakova has more.

Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla asked the junior coalition partner - the right-of-centre Freedom Union - to give up its three cabinet posts on Monday, amid a deepening political crisis in the country. The crisis began on Friday, when a Freedom Union MP - Hana Marvanova - went against her party and voted against government-proposed tax reforms, raising questions about the stability of the coalition. Rob Cameron has been following the story, how did this crisis happen Rob?

Iva Bittova is a Czech singer who has developed her own, unmistakable style, far from the mainstream. Iva's audience comes to hear her sing and play either violin or viola. This month, Iva Bittova together with the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, will give two concerts in Brno and Prague prior to a tour of Hungary and Slovakia.

A stone monument was revealed on Sunday to honour the memory of 23 people who were killed in the aftermath of the Second World War near the town of Teplice nad Metuji in East Bohemia. Senior Czech politicians and representatives of Sudeten Germans attended the ceremony which wasn't without controversy. Pavla Horakova has the details.

The 7th annual Brain-teaser, Games, and Magic fair got underway in Prague on Thursday, and while you would expect many people might be at work that early in the morning, instead many were playing games!

"In everyday life a right-wing activist has to cope with obstacles which other people wouldn't even notice. When compared with us normal people, for him the task of making contact socially can be extraordinarily difficult. The result: isolation and loneliness." An excerpt from the heavily ironic "Be Kind To Your Local Nazi" campaign - an unprecedented attempt to change indifference towards neo-Nazi skinheads by making fun of them. For the past year TV ads, posters and T-shirts have featured skinheads in a series of embarrassing social

The 11th annual St. Wenceslas festival of sacral music opens in Prague this coming Sunday. Over the past decade, the festival has become one the most popular festivals organized in the Czech capital in autumn and it attracts more and more music lovers every year. Alena Skodova has more:

Some of the leading petrol distributors on the Czech market face a multi million crown fine over allegations they formed a cartel. The Czech Anti-Monopoly Office said on Wednesday that it had sufficient evidence to prove that such a deal was concluded and enforced in the course of 2001 and that the companies involved would now pay a fine of several hundred million crowns. The Anti-Monopoly Office did not provide any names or specify the exact amount of money involved, but according to the economic daily Hospodarske Noviny this concerns Benzina,