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The Japanese imperial couple - Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko - will arrive in Prague for a three day unofficial visit this coming weekend. This is the very first visit by a Japanese imperial couple since the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918.

For the first time ever the United Nations General Assembly is to be headed by a Czech. Following Friday's decision by Belarus to withdraw its candidacy, the outgoing Czech Foreign Minster, Jan Kavan, is now the only candidate for the job. He is to be officially appointed next Monday and will take up the post as General Assembly president in September, a diplomatic triumph for Mr Kavan after over a year of tough worldwide lobbying. David Vaughan reports.

July the 1st does not only mark the beginning of school holidays in the Czech Republic, but in several laws and regulations changes have been made that will affect most Czechs. Alena Skodova has the details:

The Scottish actor Sean Connery may be approaching his 72nd birthday but he is still a major film star. Right now he is in Prague to begin shooting a film called the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. At a news conference on Friday the original James Bond was asked what were his impressions of the Czech capital.

Today is the last day of the school year in the Czech Republic-a day awaited by many youngsters with a mixture of anticipation and dread. The summer holidays loom ahead but before that they have to face their parents with this term's report card. Daniela Lazarova has the story.

Members of one of the two expert teams trying to form a new coalition cabinet have come up with the idea that the parliamentary committee that controls bugging by the police and intelligence services should be chaired by a Communist MP. But with the Czech Republic's totalitarian past, is this a really suitable choice? Alena Skodova reports:

On Tuesday, the Czech Minister of Culture, Pavel Dostal, returned a 17th century painting called Man in a Fur Cap to the French authorities. The picture had belonged to Prague's National Gallery since 1945. It was looted by the Nazis in France during WW II. Mr. Dostal handed over the picture to his French counterpart, Jean Jacques Aillagon. Alena Skodova has more:

Yugoslavia was one of the few countries where Czechoslovak citizens could go on holiday to the seaside during the Communist era, and the relationship has always been a close one. The post-Communist split of Yugoslavia was - unlike the division of Czechoslovakia - a bloody affair, and the entire region will have to deal with the consequences of the wars for a long time. One of the people at the centre of events just before the outbreak of the conflict was the former Yugoslav president, Raif Dizdarevic, who was in Prague last week. Pavla Horakova

The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, based in Washington, is the biggest and most influential organization of Czech and Slovak intellectuals living abroad. It has over two thousand members, who meet for conferences and gatherings around the world. What they share is an interest in their homeland, a desire to help their country and, in many cases, a feeling of nostalgia for what they had to leave behind when they fled Czechoslovakia for political reasons.

The Czech Republic has one of the highest prison populations in the developed world. One person in every five hundred is currently behind bars. Prison reform is the subject of an international conference currently under way in the town of Kromeriz. David Vaughan looks at some of the problems being discussed.