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Amid growing concern over the spread of the killer pneumonia virus, the Czech Hygiene Office has ordered precautionary measures to be taken at the country's international airports and on all Czech flights to high-risk destinations.

The Czech Republic's National Security Council held a special meeting on Monday evening to decide how to proceed over Iraq. The result was a non-committal stance: the country's political leaders agreed to wait until war actually breaks out before adopting a position. Rob Cameron explains why the Czechs are - for now - sitting on the fence.

London's Houses of Parliament are home to 659 MPs, 678 lords and - at the moment - one Czech student. Zuzana Smidova is currently serving as an assistant to Labour MP Chris Pond, as part of a Hansard study programme at the London School of Economics. When I spoke to Zuzana on a terrace in the Houses of Parliament - just metres away from the Thames - I asked her how she felt the first time she entered the world's most famous parliament building.

The education minister Petra Buzkova has closed down a reform institution for young offenders in the wake of reports that the practices used there violated human rights and often verged on torture. Responding to a disquieting report from the Ombusdman's Office minister Buzkova paid the institution a surprise visit and found something close to a para-military regime.

The dispute over one of Europe's most successful commercial TV stations appears to be entering its final stages. The Czech government has begun talks with the Bermuda-based Central European Media Enterprises or CME, on how to pay more than 350 million dollars in damages for failing to protect the company's investment in TV Nova. A court of arbitration ruled on Friday that the Czech state had failed CME and its chief investor Ronald Lauder when the country's Broadcasting Council allowed Nova's director Vladimir Zelezny - formerly Mr Lauder's business

For generations, portraits of Czech presidents have looked down on classrooms in schools around the country. In recent years many schools have proudly put up pictures of former president Vaclav Havel, but the tradition is slowly dying out.

The London Czech Centre is located on the busy Great Portland Street, around five minutes walk from Oxford Circus. To escape from the noise at street level, I spoke to the centre's young director Tomas Zykan in the building's basement, and asked him just what it is that the Czech Centre does.

Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla made the first move on Thursday to reassert his authority over rebels in his Social Democrat party, when he announced he was sacking Trade and Industry Minister Jiri Rusnok. Mr Rusnok was one of the ring-leaders of a recent plot to defy the prime minister and ensure that opposition candidate Vaclav Klaus was elected president. Mr Rusnok's removal was meant to send a clear signal to Mr Spidla's opponents, but many analysts have been left wondering whether he hasn't shot himself in the foot. Rob Cameron reports.

The standoff in the United Nations security council continues. The United Sates along with Great Britain have been pressuring the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution which would substantiate the use of force in order to disarm Iraq. The Czech Republic has relentlessly declared that a new UN resolution is a vital and essential ingredient if force is to be used to disarm Iraq. However, Czechs are increasingly sceptical of the need for war.

The Czech defence minister Jaroslav Tvrdik has announced a bold plan to speed up the reform of the country's armed forces. If approved by the government and parliament, it would give the Czech Republic a fully professional army two years earlier than expected.