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The ruling coalition has agreed on a government regulation which would send the price of rents in regulated tenement flats up by 10 percent in three consecutive years. At the end of that time - described as a transitional period - Parliament should debate a new law on regulated rents. Although the coalition is happy with the compromise -landlords accuse the government of dragging its feet and refusing to take measures which would help to correct the distortion of the Czech housing market. We asked economic analyst Radomir Jac what he thinks of

The Czech Republic's biggest internet portal has just published a list of the most frequent searchwords used on its website in 2003. Although the results are similar to those published in many other countries, one or two specifically Czech areas of interest were also featured.

Only a tiny minority of Czech women choose to give birth outside hospital, but they should still be allowed to make a choice - or at least that's what both the World Health Organisation and the European Union recommend. But Czech women may soon be denied the choice of giving birth at home with the assistance of a midwife - if the Senate approves a bill recently passed by the lower house. On Tuesday, mothers and fathers with young children and midwives gathered in the centre of Prague to protest against the move. Pavla Horakova spoke there to midwife

The bitter spirit Fernet is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks here in the Czech Republic. Based on Italy's Fernet Branca, Fernet has been made in this country since 1927, when an Italian businessman named Lionello Stock opened a factory in Pilsen. The present-day company Stock Pilsen is keen to expand its market beyond the Czech Republic's borders, and has just started exporting its products to the United States. I spoke to sales director Radek Svoboda, and asked him if the company was concentrating on parts of the US with a relatively large

When the Czech Republic's two nuclear power plants Temelin and Dukovany make the headlines it is usually to do with nuclear safety standards or environmental issues. On Tuesday the plants' employees urged journalists to talk about an entirely different matter - their wages.

It took Czech museums and galleries more than a year and a half to recover from the devastating flood of 2002. On Thursday last week, one of the last damaged museums reopened its complete exposition. On the same day, the National Museum in Prague introduced an exhibition illustrating the damage caused by the flood.

A team of inspectors from the European Commission have arrived in the Czech Republic to examine hygiene standards in food processing plants and restaurants ahead of the country's entry into the EU in May. Daniela Lazarova has been following the story and joins me now in the studio. Daniela is this the crucial moment for Czech restaurants and processing plants - will this visit decide their future?

"If I fail to push through my reform plans, I'm prepared to resign" - those are words that the Czech public don't hear very often from the country's politicians. Now there is one such case, for Health Minister Marie Souckova has announced she will resign if her proposal to reform the ailing Czech health care system is not approved and implemented.

It is now 35 years since the young history student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire in protest at the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. Last Thursday, students from Prague's Charles University, where Palach had been a student, held a candlelight procession through the city to commemorate his sacrifice.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Czech cultural journal Pritomnost, which published its first issue in January 1924. Down through the years, the publication has always strived to promote social and political debate among the country's intellectual classes. We have taken a look back at the publication's eventful past