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Opinion polls indicate that around seventy per cent of the Czech public opposes the war against Iraq. But, just hours after the American-led attack on Iraq began on Thursday morning, I spoke to Roman Joch, one Czech who is part of the other thirty per cent of the population that supports the war. Mr Joch is a political commentator from the Civic Institute in Prague, and he supports the war because he regards Saddam Hussein as a threat to his own people and the world. Mr Joch cites Saddam's Hussein's oppressive regime, his aggressive wars against

A few hours after US and British missiles started falling on Iraq, senior Czech ministers and the prime minister met to discuss the latest dramatic developments. After Wednesday's cabinet meeting the Czech Republic's official position concerning an invasion of Iraq still seemed less than clear. With that invasion now a reality, and Czech troops stationed in Kuwait on full alert, the meeting on Thursday morning was a far more practical affair. Radio Prague's David Vaughan was at a press conference immediately after the meeting. David, to start with,

On Wednesday morning Greenpeace staged a demonstration in front of the office of the Czech government in Prague, calling on the Czech government not to support an American-led attack against Iraq without a mandate from the United Nations. As government ministers arrived for a cabinet meeting, they were greeted by Greenpeace activists lying in body bags and holding tattered flags of the United Nations. I was on the scene and spoke to Jan Haverkamp, the director of Greenpeace's campaigns in the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of the year, the civic organisation Bridge for Human Rights held a general meeting to discuss the situation of foreigners living in the Czech Republic. It soon came to the conclusion that many foreigners, especially from countries to the east of the Czech Republic, often find themselves in a paradoxical situation as they are forced to work illegally in order to meet the requirements to obtain long-term residence permits. Dita Asiedu reports:

The newly-appointed Czech President Vaclav Klaus paid his first state visit on Tuesday - a one-day trip to Slovakia. President Klaus spent the day in talks with his Slovak counterpart Rudolf Schuster and other senior Slovak officials, talks which were overshadowed by the looming conflict in Iraq. Among the journalists who boarded the official plane to Bratislava on Tuesday was Radio Prague's Jaromir Marek.

The Czech Republic's National Security Council held a special meeting on Monday evening to decide how to proceed over Iraq. The result was a non-committal stance: the country's political leaders agreed to wait until war actually breaks out before adopting a position. Rob Cameron explains why the Czechs are - for now - sitting on the fence.

London's Houses of Parliament are home to 659 MPs, 678 lords and - at the moment - one Czech student. Zuzana Smidova is currently serving as an assistant to Labour MP Chris Pond, as part of a Hansard study programme at the London School of Economics. When I spoke to Zuzana on a terrace in the Houses of Parliament - just metres away from the Thames - I asked her how she felt the first time she entered the world's most famous parliament building.

Amid growing concern over the spread of the killer pneumonia virus, the Czech Hygiene Office has ordered precautionary measures to be taken at the country's international airports and on all Czech flights to high-risk destinations.

The education minister Petra Buzkova has closed down a reform institution for young offenders in the wake of reports that the practices used there violated human rights and often verged on torture. Responding to a disquieting report from the Ombusdman's Office minister Buzkova paid the institution a surprise visit and found something close to a para-military regime.

The dispute over one of Europe's most successful commercial TV stations appears to be entering its final stages. The Czech government has begun talks with the Bermuda-based Central European Media Enterprises or CME, on how to pay more than 350 million dollars in damages for failing to protect the company's investment in TV Nova. A court of arbitration ruled on Friday that the Czech state had failed CME and its chief investor Ronald Lauder when the country's Broadcasting Council allowed Nova's director Vladimir Zelezny - formerly Mr Lauder's business