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The recent shooting incident at the Czech military field hospital in Basra, Iraq, attracted media attention again to the Czech humanitarian mission in that particular country. But Czech humanitarian workers are also helping to restore civilian infrastructure in other areas of conflict around the world - places which over the past months have been somewhat overshadowed by the events in Iraq. Since November 2001, the People in Need Foundation (Clovek v tisni) has been running a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. Pavla Horakova contacted the People

Some 80,000 Rolling Stones fans flocked to Prague on Sunday to see the legendary British rock group perform in the Czech capital and neither the tropical heat nor the rain that followed could keep them away. The Rolling Stones had already honoured their Czech fans with magnificent concerts three times since the fall of the Communist Regime in 1989. They chose to make Sunday a fourth appearance and front man Mick Jagger even decided to celebrate his sixtieth birthday in Prague.

As the capital city of a European Union candidate country, Prague decided to open its own office in Brussels last June to promote itself as a city of culture and business opportunities. However the Prague House, as the representative office is called, has proved to be a serious disappointment.

With summer in full swing in Prague crowds have been lining up for tickets to one of the city's most exciting summer festivals - performances of Shakespeare's plays at Prague Castle. This year performances include both Hamlet as well as King Lear - last season's critically-acclaimed production starring Czech-born actor Jan Triska. Radio Prague's Jan Velinger attended the performance of Lear this week, and as you will find out, there was good reason to be impressed.

What could also happen is that instead of being let go, police officers will be assigned to work in different regions, depending on the required number of officers in the region. It may for instance happen that provincial overstaffed forces will have to send part of their staff to Prague, where many posts are still available.

The strongest opposition party in Parliament, the centre right Civic Democrats have declared their intention to try to bring down the three-party coalition government and trigger early elections. The public announcement made by the party's leader Miroslav Topolanek, comes in the wake of a fresh blow for the governing coalition: one of its deputies broke ranks on Tuesday, seriously endangering the government's razor thin majority in the Lower House.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has travelled to the United States to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President George W. Bush. Mr Havel is the first Czech ever to receive the medal, which is the highest civilian award in the United States, and recognizes exceptional meritorious service.

As the Lower House prepared to debate the government's fiscal reform package on Tuesday, a deputy for the ruling Social Democratic Party let off a bombshell. He announced that he was leaving his party's deputies group and might not support the crucial reform package all the way. For a government with a razor thin majority in the Lower House this news could mean the end of the road.

The Cabinet on Monday approved a humanitarian-evacuations plan for seriously sick Iraqi children. Although the motto of the day is "save wherever possible" the government voted unanimously in favour of a plan which would allow doctors working in the Czech field hospital in Basra, southern Iraq, to select some of the most seriously ill children for specialized long-term care in the Czech Republic.

The cabinet at its Monday meeting rejected an anti-abortion bill put forward by a group of Christian Democrat and Civic Democrat deputies. Under the bill, abortions would be a criminal offence and doctors could face up to five years in prison for performing them. The authors of the bill say they expected it to be rebuffed by the government, but in their words, they wanted to stir up a debate on the issue in Czech society.