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Doing a compulsory twelve months army service was a fate which most eighteen year old Czech boys were resigned to. Unless of course they got a so called "blue certificate" from the doctor stating that conscription was not possible for health reasons. Now, the army is in the process of becoming fully professional - and thousands of eighteen year olds will not be called upon to do military service. There's just one catch: who will and who will not serve in the army is a matter of pure chance.

It couldn't have been better timed. Just when all eyes are on France and Germany, the Czech Foreign Ministry on Wednesday hosted a discussion on the two countries' role in the new Europe. The current Czech government comes close to the Franco-German pro-federalist view of European integration, but over Iraq Prague has sided itself with the United States and Britain. During the discussion the Social Democrat MP Libor Roucek, who is also vice-chair of the Czech parliament's European Integration Committee, firmly criticized France and Germany's recent

A teenage Czech prankster has proven the old adage "where there's a will, there's a way" - pulling off such an audacious stunt last December that when the story broke this week it seemed almost too unbelievable to be true: police have charged the 19-year-old waiter from a small town on the Czech-German border with fraud, impersonating a government official, and forging official documents. To what aim? Apparently to travel the world - all at public cost.

Pavlina Scasna has been playing football since she was a little girl, and is now about to realise a life-long dream by joining a club in the home of women's soccer, the United States. The move follows a year and a half in the German league, where Pavlina - who is 20 years old - was the top scorer. Pavlina Scasna comes from a football family: her brother Michal plays for Czech club Viktoria Zizkov and her father Zdenek is a well-known coach. She recalls how, when she was a football-crazy young girl, her father tried to persuade her to play a more

As the Czech Republic continues to repair the damage caused by last year's floods, an international working conference on the restoration of damaged archives and book collections is taking place in Prague this week. On Wednesday, the British Council in the Czech Republic will hand over vacuum drying machines for books and documents to the Czech National Technical Museum and the National Library. The machines were funded with financial contributions from, among others, the office of the Prince of Wales. At the working meeting, the director of the

French President Jacques Chirac's furious and very undiplomatic outburst at the EU candidate countries of Central Europe has elicited an equally furious reaction from the countries themselves. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic have all hit back at Mr Chirac, saying that France has no right to dictate the foreign policy of other countries. But Czech officials, while clearly rattled at Mr Chirac's fit of pique, have also expressed dismay at the divisions in Europe over the Iraq crisis. Rob Cameron has more.

Next Friday, the third attempt to elect a new Czech president will take place. If that vote again fails to produce a new head of state, parliament will start a debate on changing the method of election to direct vote. So far the only official presidential candidate is former prime minister Vaclav Klaus who says he is also prepared to run if a popular vote is introduced. Radio Prague's Pavla Horakova spoke to Vaclav Klaus and she began by asking him whether changing the method of electing a president would be the best solution.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Alois Rasin, a key figure in the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and also the country's first finance minister. He died three weeks after being shot by a young assassin in the centre of Prague - the first political assassination in the fledgling Czechoslovak state. Rob Cameron looks back at the life and premature death of Alois Rasin.

Czech farming has seen huge changes since the days of communism, when the majority of farmers were forced to work on collective farms. Now all that has changed, and more and more farmers are choosing to follow the international trend towards organic farming, partly in response to worries over food safety. Martin Hrobsky reports.

As part of the worldwide protests against a possible war on Iraq, two antiwar protests occurred in Prague on Saturday. One was organised by the student group Initiative Against War and took place on Jan Palach Square, while the other was staged by the Communist Party on Wenceslas Square. Only around 1,500 people participated in these protests, which is relatively low when compared to the turnout for other antiwar demonstrations around the world this weekend.