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35 years ago just before midnight on 20th August 1968 Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia, bringing the brief reforms of the Prague Spring to an abrupt and violent end, shattering the dreams of the reformist leader Alexander Dubcek and millions of Czechs and Slovaks. Dubcek had grown up in the Soviet Union, believed passionately in the ideals of communism, and was sincere in his dream of "socialism with a human face". But Dubcek was also naïve. He never dreamed that his beloved Soviet Union would resort to invading his homeland, to halt the

It's a year now since rivers in the Czech Republic burst their banks, causing the worst flooding the country had seen for hundreds of years. The floods left seventeen people dead, towns and villages badly damaged and in some cases destroyed, and a bill of more than two and a half billion dollars - and that's not taking into account lost wages, ruined crops and other hard-to-trace costs.

If you've been on Prague's Wenceslas Square (Vaclavkse namesti) recently, you may have noticed an extremely futuristic car, a huge naked Buddha or four golden-coloured shopping trolleys. No, the world hasn't gone mad - the square is currently playing host to an exhibition of sculptures by Czech and Slovak artists. What's more the sculptures seem to be popular, if the number of people having their photos taken by them is anything to go by. The exhibition is organised by the Art Factory gallery, which is owned by Zora Carrier. I asked her how many

Two Jehovah's Witnesses have been granted compensation worth several hundred Euros for appalling hardship they faced in Czechoslovakia's Stalinist prisons in the early1950s. The hard line authorities had jailed the men as part of a huge clampdown on religious organizations at the height of the communist purges. What makes this case unusual is that the men are neither Czech nor Slovak. Today they are both German citizens. David Vaughan has the story.

Dirk Bachmann has a rather unusual way of spending his time - riding round the world on his motorbike raising awareness of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Several years ago, Dirk emigrated from his native Germany to New Zealand, where he works as a language teacher. But his work as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF - and in particular the campaign to eradicate polio - has taken him around the globe. On Wednesday he made a brief pitstop in the Czech Republic, and had time to drop into Radio Prague.

Over seven thousand young Christian men and women from forty countries are visiting Prague this week. A YMCA Europe gathering has turned the city's Letna plain into a little YMCA village, where visitors can enjoy concerts, theatre performances, seminars and much more until, August 9. The last such gathering in Europe was held some fifty years ago with only three hundred visitors and since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Christian association's headquarters in Europe have toyed with the idea of holding another similar event. When the YMCA headquarters

We've been having a long and very hot summer here in the Czech Republic. After it was announced that this June was the hottest on record, the weather forecasters said the tropical weather was behind us, and we could expect cooler temperatures in July and August. Well, they were wrong: the Czech Republic is once again being hit by a heat wave, and the intense heat is something everybody is talking about.

Are you a Czech expat who is missing the chance to use your mother tongue? Or maybe you're a second generation Czech who would like to keep in touch with events in the homeland of your ancestors, but you think your Czech is not good enough? Are you interested in Czech history, folklore and humour? Well, there is a chance for all of you - it's called Czech Dialogue and it's a bilingual magazine bringing together Czechs at home and abroad.

A senior member of the U.S. military - vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace - visited Prague this week, for talks with Czech colleagues that covered Afghanistan, Iraq and reform of the Czech armed forces. General Pace had warm words of praise for his Czech hosts, particularly for the reputation of Czech peace-keeping operations around the world.

Almost a year ago, the Czech Republic made headlines around the world when it was hit by the worst flooding in hundreds of years. To mark the anniversary, a new book of photographs of the devastation caused by the floods has been published. The book's called Prague Underwater, and among the photographers who contributed to it was Jitka Podzimkova, of Radio Prague's Internet department.