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Thomas J. Bata, former head of Czech shoe giant Bata is celebrating his 90th birthday this week. The occasion has drawn attention to this Czech success story, which revolutionised an entire industry. Since its humble beginnings as a family cobbler's shop in the Moravian town of Zlin, the Bata Shoe Organisation has grown into one of the biggest footwear companies in the world.

A long-standing dispute between players and owners in North America's National Hockey League came to a head on Thursday when the league locked-out players on a day they would have normally started training camp. The dispute has put the regular season — as well as next year's Stanley Cup play-offs — at threat, and as a result many European players have returned home to play in their national leagues.

Following weeks of controversy, coalition leaders this week agreed on the framework for the 2005 state budget. The draft proposal envisages a budget deficit of 84 billion crowns, down from an earlier proposal of 94 billion. The ten billion crown reduction should bring the Czech Republic closer to fulfilling the criteria set by the European Commission's Convergence programme. But after the smiles and handshakes for the cameras, government ministers find it hard to agree on where the money should be saved.

If you're one of those who has to light a cigarette within the first thirty minutes after getting out of bed in the morning and if the mere sound of a cigarette being lit instantly improves your mood and makes your heart beat faster, then it's high time for you to visit your local smoking cessation centre. This, according to Czech-born medical psychologist Petr Hajek - one of the world's leading experts on tobacco-dependency research. Dr Hajek, who now resides in the United Kingdom, visited Prague on Thursday to lecture fellow colleagues, the media,

For many years productivity levels in the Czech Republic lagged behind the country's neighbors to the west. But the latest statistics suggest that Czech workers are now working more efficiently. Productivity levels have reached the average for the world's most industrialized countries. Maida Agovic has been looking more closely at the newly released figures.

Czechs are living longer. This is the good news from a United Nations' state of the world population report just released. The statistics are just as encouraging when it comes to infant mortality - with one of the lowest figures in the world, and levels of HIV infection in the country, which are very low. But one figure does bring serious cause for concern - Czechs are having fewer children, and the birth rate is in rapid decline. I'm joined by Jan Velinger, who has been going over the statistics.

This week saw the publication of a book simply entitled "Athens 2004" by Herbert Slavik, a Czech photographer who spent the recent Olympics chronicling the feats of the Czech team at the Games. The Czech Republic took one gold, three silver and four bronze medals in Athens, and the general secretary of the Czech Olympic Committee, Vladimir Dostal, says that was an achievement.

Since the Velvet Revolution fifteen years ago Czechs have gradually gotten used to erotic trade fairs in the Czech capital, and this year is no exception. In a week's time Erotica Sex 2004, returns for the 10th year in a row, with Czech-born adult stars like Paula Wild and Jessica Fiorentino performing. Make no mistake: their work is for adults-only and leaves nothing to the imagination.

The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, on September 11th — on the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington — began a week-long tour of five European countries: Norway, Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. All are members of the "coalition of the willing" and in the face of rising security concerns, the U.S. is keen to see they remain so.

Tuesday saw the release of the latest OECD "Education at a Glance" report, which came out simultaneously in all member countries. The report, which uses a wide variety of factors to compare levels of education, was presented in Prague by Michaela Klenhova of the Institute for Information on Education.