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It's 65 years today since the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy gathered in Munich to sign a document which would have lasting consequences not only for Czechoslovakia but also the whole of Europe. Under the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia's German-speaking border regions were sliced off and handed to Nazi Germany, in what has been described as one of the greatest betrayals of the 20th century. Rob Cameron looks back at Munich 1938.

The three party coalition government of Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has crossed a major hurdle. Despite its fragile one vote majority in the Lower House it managed to survive a vote of no-confidence called by the opposition Civic Democrats and to push through a package of controversial fiscal reforms which are expected to prepare the country for EU membership in 2004.

Since 1997, Mystic Skates Limited has been the organiser of the Czech Skateboarding Cup, which took place over the weekend on Stvanice Island in Prague. It is the final contest from a professional series, which begins in May in ten cities around the country. Though a relatively new event, close to a thousand spectators came daily this year to see athletes achieve astonishing tricks and take in skateboarder culture.

This week hundreds of Czech émigrés from all corners of the globe have gathered in Prague for the "Week of Czechs Abroad". They will be discussing everything from the role of Czech exiles in the film industry to the very concrete problems faced by those struggling to win back their lost Czech citizenship. The week opened with an exhibition at Prague's Jaroslav Fragner Gallery of designs by fifteen Czech émigré architects. Some, like Eva Jiricna, with her stylish hi-tech designs in London, or Martin Roubik, with his recent award-winning competition

It was one of the more anticipated events this year - an economics presentation at Prague's Zofin Palace which attracted hundreds on Thursday. Its key speaker was former prime minister and former Social Democrat leader Milos Zeman. While this month the current Social Democrat-led government has staked its survival on passing much-needed fiscal reforms, it is well-known Mr Zeman was at odds with the proposals. It was expected he would tear into his former colleagues' plans and, in the end, he did.

Well it was close, but not that close: the centre-left coalition survived Friday morning's vote of no-confidence in parliament, called by the opposition Civic Democrats. In the end the much-hyped government rebellion over the package of planned public finance reforms failed to materialise - only one coalition MP abstained from the vote, and that wasn't enough to sink the government.

The Lower House of Czech Parliament has approved in the second reading eleven bills that constitute a major public finance reform proposed by the government. Although some coalition MPs had previously voiced their dissatisfaction with certain reform measures, the cabinet had few problems pushing the package through.

Now, have you been feeling a bit strange lately? Men - have you been feeling jealous, withdrawn, depressed? Women - have you been feeling unusually outgoing, flirtatious even? Well, if you have noticed some sudden changes in your behaviour, there's a good chance you've been infected with a parasite called toxoplasma - and believe it or not, you probably caught it from your cat. No, we haven't gone completely mad: Jaroslav Flegr, a scientist at Prague's Charles University, claims that millions of people around the world are infected with the primarily cat-borne

The International Music Festival Autumn Strings begins this Friday at Prague Castle and one of the main stars will be the internationally acclaimed Czech mezzo-soprano, Magdalena Kozena. She will open the festival with songs from her new CD called "French Arias", conducted by Michel Swierczewsky. Although she is now based in Paris, Magdalena Kozena told Radio Prague that she is always happy to return home. Besides, she expects Friday's concert to be rather special:

The centre-left government have won their first major victory in the battle over planned public finance reforms. The lower house voted on Tuesday to overrule President Vaclav Klaus's veto of a bill which would substantially increase VAT. The most important change is that all services currently charged under the lower rate - 5 percent - will be moved to the upper rate - 22 percent - as of January 1st, 2004.