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Throughout its history the Czech Republic has been renowned for having an outstanding level of education. This small country in the heart of Europe has produced many great intellectuals, writers, scientists and creative engineers. Even so, the famous Czech author Ivan Klima noted in his novel "the Spirit of Prague" that nowhere in the world where the literacy rate is almost 100% is education so underrated. But with today's financial realities, do Czechs have more reason to look at their university education with such disdain?

Prior the fall of communism the border separating socialist Czechoslovakia from the capitalist West was notoriously well-guarded, creating a virtual no-man's land. Few were able to cross or even to enter. Paradoxically, the strict precautions ended up having an unexpectedly positive effect: nature in this area remained practically untouched to this day, a true rarity in the centre of Europe. To ensure the area's continued preservation, leading environmental organisations launched a project aimed at protecting the border region. The groups hope

Towns and cities around the country have been dreading the process of transforming the Czech Army. They expect major losses as dozens of army bases are to be abandoned and hundreds of civilian employees will be laid off. But one town in Moravia has something to look forward to. On Monday, the Army began restructuring its command centres and moved the Czech Armed Forces' Operational Headquarters and some 450 new inhabitants to the town of Olomouc.

Every year the Czech government looses approximately 3 billion crowns through the sale of unlicensed cigarettes and alcohol. Most of it is sold at outdoor stalls, predominantly by Vietnamese market traders. Despite the fact that the cartons of cigarettes are obviously counterfeit, and there have even been cases of buyers coming home to find their cartons stuffed with cotton wool and nails -the lower price of smuggled cigarettes continues to ensure steady sales. Inspections and police raids have proved ineffective in the long run -since no matter

At Monday's meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, the Czech Republic offered to send a special unit to Afghanistan to join the International Security Assistance Force and the US-led operation Enduring Freedom. The offer is expected to be approved by the cabinet by the end of the year, to be then submitted to both houses of parliament in January.

The Czech Republic faces a deep crisis of its pension system caused by changes in the structure of the population. Parliament recently approved increasing the retirement age to 63 years. However, experts believe this will not solve the problem.

Viktor Kozeny is wanted in connection with the biggest scandal of the Czech Republic's privatisation process of the 1990s, having allegedly cheated small investors out of billions of crowns. Six weeks ago a Czech court issued an international warrant for his arrest. Now, bizarrely, Mr Kozeny - who lives in the Bahamas - says he is planning to run in the first Czech elections to the European Parliament, which are taking place next June. He explained his plans in an interview this week:

Negotiations in Naples, Italy, over the weekend involving foreign ministers from 25 EU countries - 15 current members and 10 acceding states, have seen a breakthrough: apparent agreement on the future make-up of the Union's executive body, the European Commission that would allow each new member, including the Czech Republic, its own commissioner with the right to vote. Something the Czech Republic had made clear was of the highest priority ever since inter-governmental negotiations got underway in October.

Tuning into a Czech music station these days, it's hard not to notice that the music that ruled the airwaves before 1989 is enjoying something of a revival. The sounds of the 1970s and 80s definitely seems to be enjoying a resurgence in popularity. We went to a "socialist pop" concert in Prague recently to see if we could find any reasons behind this trend.

People around the world are marking World AIDS Day, and according to the grim statistics, a record number of people became infected this year. The Czech Republic is a country with a "low-level epidemic" - the number of confirmed cases of HIV is in the hundreds, rather than the thousands. However, the real figure could be up to ten times higher, and the authorities are worried that people are becoming increasingly complacent about AIDS.