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There are almost 100 political parties and movements registered in the Czech Republic. They are soon to be joined by a new party which is planning to run for and even win seats in the next general election in 2006. Called "Rovnost sanci", or "Equal Opportunities", the new political party will focus on women in society both on a domestic and international level.

Czech Parliament is discussing an amendment to the country's Criminal Code, now more than 40 years old. The main purpose of the amendment is above all to hit perpetrators of violent crimes like murder or robbery with more serious sentences. While now the limit for imprisonment was 25 years, apart from exceptional life sentences, in the future it could be raised by five years. There are also quite a few entirely new crimes defined like terrorist attacks or prostitution endangering moral development of children, in other words, prostitution in school

The 14th annual international fair of information and communication technology is taking place in Brno this week. The INVEX fair brings leading Czech and international firms in the technology and multimedia industry together to exhibit the finest products and service that their industry has to offer. Martin Hrobsky attended the fair and filed this report.

Later this month, the Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihamoni will be crowned the country's new king after his father, Norodom Sihanouk, abdicated last week. Cambodia's ex-ambassador to Unesco, Prince Sihamoni is also a former ballet dancer. But it is not widely-known that he had spent thirteen years in Prague studying classical ballet at various schools. Also, the new king of Cambodia is not the only one among world politicians who speaks fluent Czech - a language often described as very difficult to master.

When the institution of Ombudsman - defender of citizens rights - was set up four years ago in the Czech Republic plenty of people were sceptical. They regarded it as just another office which would employ more bureaucrats and spend more money. But four years into his six-year term, the first Czech Ombudsman Otakar Motejl has clearly won public trust.

On Wednesday evening the Czech football team won their second World Cup qualifying game in a row, beating Armenia 3:0 in the country's capital Yerevan. Two of the Czechs' goals came from man-of-the-match Jan Koller, with the third scored by his Borussia Dortmund team-mate Tomas Rosicky.

Czech fans of rock'n'roll are in for an extremely rare treat on Thursday night, when one of the genre's true legends - Jerry Lee Lewis - makes his first ever appearance in the Czech Republic.

The Czechs are - famously - the world's number one consumers of beer. But did you know that while 90 percent of Czech men are beer drinkers, it's only 58 percent in the case of women? A new report on Czech drinking habits has also found that voters of the center-right Civic Democrats drink the most beer, but that may be because the party has more male voters. The study also looks at another very interesting issue - the importance of pubs in Czech society.

This weekend, Prague is hosting its first-ever Music on Film - Film on Music Festival. This event hopes to excite the city's denizens with a sizzling showcase of films which explore and celebrate music. It will be showing 84 music-based films of varying length, including three world premieres.

It has been described as the biggest political scandal in years: two men connected with the opposition Civic Democrats charged with corruption after a coalition MP said they tried to bribe him to bring down the government. But now the case has been turned on its head, with a state attorney describing the arrests as unlawful, and the MP in question as untrustworthy.