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In the early hours of Monday morning, the last fifty personnel from the Czech military field hospital in the Iraqi city of Basra arrived in Prague - putting an end to the hospital's nine-month mission in the war-torn country. The Czech government decided to terminate its mission last month despite protests from many quarters including the Czech ambassador to Kuwait, who was later sacked over the remarks. The withrawal of the field hospital, however, isn't the end of Czech military involvement in Iraq.

Less than a century ago, there were 230 million Muslims in the world, which at that time comprised one seventh of the world's population. Today, adherents of Islam account for almost one third of the people living on this planet. This upsurge in the popularity of Islam is particularly evident in Europe. Whereas a hundred years ago, Europe's Muslim population was concentrated primarily in the Balkans, nowadays there are Muslims living all over the continent from Iceland to Georgia. In keeping with this trend, the Czech Republic also has a small

In March of this year Cuban dictator Fidel Castro imprisoned 75 human rights activists with sentences ranging from six to twenty-seven years, an action somberly understood by most Czechs. Since this time various initiatives have been launched in the Czech Republic to support the dissidents and their families; including a letter by former dissident later president Vaclav Havel and two other leaders of eastern bloc countries, calling for the peaceful overthrow of the regime. As part of this continuing effort a Czech based NGO called the People in

Do the country's air force pilots finally have something to look forward to? After three hours of discussion on Wednesday night, the cabinet announced it was to start negotiations with the Swedish government on leasing 14 Gripen fighter jets to the Czech air force. The planes are to replace the country's ageing fleet of MiG-21 fighters, which must be decommissioned by the end of 2004.

Many Czech university students are not thinking only about Christmas presents but also of planning their holidays. A lot of them will spend their summer abroad, taking part in the Work and Travel Program. If they want everything to go well, they should apply for the program before Christmas.

The Czech Statistics Agency has just produced a report about what traditions people still observe at Christmas time, how many of them eat fried carp as their main Christmas dish, how many sing Christmas carols and how many bake their own Christmas cookies. But in order to give you the whole picture I asked Lenka Slivova, one of the agency's employees, to simply tell us what her own Christmas is like:

Just days after the EU failed to agree on a new constitution for Europe, and a new row appears to be emerging - this time over money. Six of the EU's richest countries called this week for EU spending to be capped, something which would hit the 10 new members that join in May.

Every year, the Czech Republic, known as a country rich in history and culture, attracts millions of tourists. But many of the country's heritage sites have not been given the care and protection they deserve. All this week, concerts and seminars will be held at Prague's St. Michael's Church to raise awareness of heritage sites - mostly churches - and to find alternative ways of using them while preserving their historic and cultural value.

In just over a week's time many thousands of people in the Czech Republic will leave the warmth of their homes on Christmas Eve to attend midnight mass. The tradition remains strong in this country, despite the fact that some surveys suggest the Czechs are among the most atheistic nations in Europe. To find out how religious the Czechs really are as a nation, I spoke to Jesuit priest and academic Josef Blaha.

The huge changes that have occurred in this country over the past decade or so become even more apparent around Christmas time. Whereas before 1989, Christmas was primarily a celebration involving traditional carp dinners, with oranges being the only "luxury good" people could hope for, it is now a glitzy, commercial festival similar to that which has long been common in the West. This year, Czech retailers are expecting bumper sales for the Christmas period, as the people here go on a seasonal shopping spree.