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On Thursday afternoon the popular Straznice Slunce (Sun) folk festival gets underway in south Moravia. The Scottish 1960s star Donovan is headlining the opening night of the annual three-day festival on Thursday, and promises to play a mix of new songs and classic hits, such as Catch the Wind, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow. Donovan was one of the major artists of the hippy era, and when Ian Willoughby spoke to him on Wednesday, he asked Donovan if he still retained his 1960s idealism.

This week saw the opening session of the newly elected 200 member Lower House of Parliament. It was a change of guard conducted under intense media scrutiny. The newly elected deputies moved into their offices, appointed their aides, attended their first committee meetings and gave their first interviews to the press. Eva Novakova, a former teacher and a mother of two, is one of 34 women in the Lower House. Earlier DL asked her to share her impressions of the opening session.

So, it's Day 6 of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, being held in the famous spa town in West Bohemia..it's not all be about films though as I found out when I spoke to RP's Dita Asiedu on the line from Karlovy Vary earlier today. I began asking Dita, though, about some of the films in competition for this years prestigous Crystal Globe..

Earlier this week over 100 leading academics, journalists and people from the arts world in both the Czech Republic and Austria have criticized the present level of political debate between the two neighbor states, and in an effort to diffuse tension and improve relations they established a so-called Forum for Czech Austrian Dialogue. Prof Heinrich Neisser who is a political scientist at Innsbruck University explains why he feels it is time to develop a broader discussion between Prague and Vienna.

The Karlovy Vary international film festival is in full swing, with every film selling out and all attendance records being broken. Thousands of people are watching films by day and partying by night, in one of the most beautiful spa towns in the Czech Republic. But the festival wasn't always such a lively and popular event. Before becoming artistic director in 1994, Eva Zaoralova attended Karlovy Vary as a film critic for many years; Ian Willoughby asked her just what the festival was like twenty years ago.

The Czech Social Democrats and the right-of-centre Christian Democrats and Freedom Union reached a final agreement on Monday on forming a government expected to lead the country into the European Union. The Social Democrat leader Vladmir Spidla unveiled a list of 17 names to form the cabinet, including himself as the Prime Minister. Speaking confidently Vladimir Spidla said he was sure it would be a majority government and a strong governments. President Vaclav Havel is expected to appoint Vladimir Spidla on Friday and the rest of the cabinet on

The 37th International Karlovy Vary Film Festival has gotten underway in the Czech Republic drawing thousands of film lovers as well as actors and actresses both from the Czech scene and from around the world. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby has been attending the festival and I was able to speak to him earlier today to get the latest impressions.

Talks on a new government between the Social Democrats and the centre right Coalition of Freedom Union and the Christian Democrats have come to an end. The distribution of power, goals and functioning of the new Czech government in the next four years are to be defined by a written coalition agreement. Since the start of the negotiations on June 18, the three parties managed to narrow down the number of disputed issues until they finally settled on a common programme last Wednesday. On Thursday, however, the leader of the Freedom Union, Hana Marvanova,

At the weekend, the Czech police announced that they had arrested three people from the East Bohemian town of Chrudim believed to have been involved in dealing with the infamous Czech-made plastic explosive, Semtex, as well as radioactive materials. More from Dita Asiedu:

The Czechs celebrate the 5th of July as a holiday dedicated to Sts. Cyril and Methodius, missionaries who were not only the fathers of early Slavonic literary culture but whose mission was misused for a larger political game over dominance in Central Europe. In a special holiday programme we ask why these two ancient Byzantine priests are so important