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On Wednesday night Milos Forman's film, "Taking Off" premiered in the Czech Republic, no less than 35 years after it was made. Milos Forman was one of the pioneers of the Czech new wave in cinema in the 1960s. Following the Soviet invasion in 1968, he emigrated to America where he launched a successful career with films One Flew over a Cuckoo's Nest, Hair, the People vs Larry Flint and more recently Man on the Moon.

The name Herald TV comes from the newspaper Hlasatel, known in English as the Czechoslovak Daily Herald. The paper was founded 1891 and is apparently the oldest Czech daily in the world. John Honner worked at Hlasatel before launching Herald TV last year. On the line from Chicago he explains why.

The European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed the European Union's first Constitution, which aims to streamline the way the EU works. Nearly all the mainstream parties in the 732 member Parliament supported the treaty, with 500 deputies in favour, 137 against and 40 abstaining from the vote. The European Constitution will only come into force if all 25 member states ratify it, and one of the countries where the ratification process is seen as potentially problematic is the Czech Republic. Although the coalition government is strongly

Less than a year after the country's admission to the European Union Czech dairy producers have started feeling the pinch of tough competition on the EU market. Not because of cheaper, heavily subsidized goods from EU member states - as was their main concern - but because Czech milk suppliers have started selling their milk to neighbouring Germany at more advantageous prices.

A unique pilot programme launched by the Czech Donors Forum last year to collect charitable donations through mobile phone text messages proved invaluable in Czech efforts to aid victims of the devastating tsunami that struck Southeast Asia last month.

Josef Fisera, a leading figure of the Czechoslovak exile community in France has died in Paris at the age of 93. His life spanned the best part of a century - and he dedicated it to helping others in the fight against two totalitarian regimes.

Vaclav Havel and Lou Reed took part in an unusual event on Monday night, when they held an on-stage public conversation at Prague's Svandovo Divadlo theatre. The two first met in the heady days of 1990, when the former Velvet Underground front man interviewed the then freshly elected Czechoslovak president.

Of the country's population of ten million, 541,675 were out of work in December 2004. In the last month of the year, the unemployment rate shot up to 9.5 percent from 8.9 percent in November. But while this development has made front page headlines, economists say there is no cause for concern and expect the rate to continue to rise and peak in February. Seasonal factors - the lack of seasonal jobs in agriculture or construction for example - cause unemployment to increase every winter. But, as the chief economist at Next Finance, Marketa Sichtarova,

In order to help Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia as well as the other countries affected by the tsunami disaster, a number of Czech pop musicians took part in a benefit concert on Sunday. The leading star and co-organizer was a young Czech pop-star Aneta Langerova.

While parts of northern Europe were battling with strong winds and floods over the weekend, the Czech Republic was basking in warm sunshine. In neighbouring Slovakia temperatures were so high that they brought bears out of their long winter sleep, and here there were reports of primroses coming into flower. David Vaughan reports on a weekend that saw records tumble.