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Slovakia's citizens voted last Friday and Saturday for entry into the European Union in a dramatic referendum. On Saturday there were fears that the fifty per cent turnout required for the referendum to be valid would not be met. But in the end, fifty two per cent of Slovaks did vote - and ninety two per cent of them were in favour of EU membership.

The Czech governing coalition on Sunday confirmed its fiscal reform proposal from last week, despite angry protests by trade unions. The reform envisages higher excise and VAT tax, lower corporate income tax, slower growth in state employees' salaries and lower social payments. Earlier today Daniela Lazarova spoke with Zdenek Malek, Vice-President of the Czech and Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions to find out what the trade unions' current position is:

A survey conducted recently in the Czech Republic has revealed that up to 60 % of Czech men are not only against their wives hiring domestic help, but they're also quite reluctant to help participate in the household chores themselves. They are convinced it's a women' s duty to do the housework.

Racism, discrimination in schools, unemployment, decrepit living conditions - Roma have enough problems in the Czech Republic. Now, less than a month before Czech citizens voice their opinions in a referendum concerning their country's membership in the European Union, once again the Romany minority feels left out. That's the way well-known Roma activist Ondrej Gina sees it, as he spoke out about the absence of a special campaign targeted to help the Czech Romany population understand what the referendum is all about.

This year Czech Radio celebrates its eightieth anniversary and Radio Prague, which is part of the public-service broadcaster, is dedicating a short series to the eight decades of radio broadcasting in this country. May 18, 1923 was the day when the few dozen listeners there were in Czechoslovakia could hear the programme broadcast live from a tent at the Kbely military base outside Prague. After Great Britain, Czechoslovakia became the second European country to launch regular radio broadcasting. In today's episode, we look at the very beginnings

On Thursday a Forum 2000 Foundation event was held in Prague's historic Municipal House on the topic "Quo vadis Europa?" - Latin for "Where are you going, Europe?" As you can gather from the title, the participants - who included former Czech president Vaclav Havel and intellectuals from all over the Continent - were there to discuss the future of Europe.

There was victory for one of the country's old aristocratic families this week, when a court in Hradec Kralove ended a 12-year legal row by ruling that a Renaissance-era castle belongs to the family of nobles that owned it for hundreds of years before World War II. Opocno Castle was first seized by the Nazis and then nationalised by the Communists after the war, but it's taken more than a decade for the former owners to wrench it back from the Czech state. Rob Cameron reports.

The Czech media scene will never be the same again. After nine years at the helm of the country's first commercial television station TV Nova - general director Vladimir Zelezny has been sacked by the company's new owners. The fifty-eight-year old Mr Zelezny, the man behind TV Nova's astounding success, and a Senator since last November, was always a controversial figure on the Czech media scene after making TV Nova the best performing station in the region and then pushing his Bermuda-based partners out of the business. Now it looks like his career

One of the world's most prestigious classical music festivals - the Prague Spring - opened on Monday, with the traditional performance of "My Country" by the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. Over the next three weeks, audiences will be treated to some of the finest classical music performed by some of the most talented musicians in the world. But this year, for the first time in the festival's 58-year history, rock music will be included in the repertoire. Rob Cameron reports.

Two months after an unknown assailant threatened to detonate a bomb in public in the town of Olomouc, in eastern Moravia, Czech authorities appear to have a similar case on their hands: an anonymous caller threatening to plant cyanide in patients' hospital food unless he receives 300 million crowns. Already this month two ampoules containing the deadly poison were uncovered at a Prague hospital, an indication the blackmailer wants his message not only taken seriously, but may be willing to carry out his threat.