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"If the European Constitution fails to get approved, nothing earth shattering will happen. In fact we will have a flourishing European Union. The fewer such documents the better!" - words with which President Vaclav Klaus launched his latest literary work: a "guide" to the European Constitution.

As any visitor to the city will know, tourism is an absolutely huge industry in the Czech capital Prague. Millions of people from all around the world visit the city every year - almost three and a half million in 2004, according to figures just released by Czech Tourism. Prague was the sixth most visited city in Europe last year, with the greatest number of tourists coming from the United Kingdom.

One of the biggest privatisation deals since the fall of communism has been signed and sealed. The Spanish Telefonica now owns a 51 percent stake in Cesky Telecom - the Czech fixed line operator which also owns the Czech Republic's leading mobile operator Eurotel. In an open tender, where the deciding criterion was the price, Telefonica beat Swisscom and Belgacom, with an offer of over 3.5 billion dollars. One analyst described the deal, at a good 25 percent higher than expected, as nothing less than a "bomb". David Vaughan was at the signing ceremony

Even though the most famous film festival in the Czech Republic takes place in Karlovy Vary, Prague film fans also have their own chance for an annual taste of the best of world cinema - Febiofest. The Prague part of the festival ended last Friday, but the event now continues in other Czech towns and will later move on to Slovakia.

Ambassador to the European Union and Social Democratic party member Jan Kohout is the odds-on favourite to become the next Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Mr Kohout is an experienced diplomat, but an untested politician: he has never been elected to public office or held a position of leadership within the Social Democratic party itself. Brian Kenety takes a look at the career of the man who might be set to take over the reins of government.

There are few Czech politicians who have left such a mark on Czech society as President Vaclav Klaus. He has been in high politics for more than 15 years non-stop and there is hardly anyone who has so many devoted followers and staunch critics at the same time. With a manner that some describe as authoritative and others as unbearably arrogant, Vaclav Klaus leaves few people indifferent and that may be one of the reasons why he is the target of so many jokes. A collection of these jokes has just been published in Prague.

As in many countries around the world, Friday 8th April was declared a day of mourning in the Czech Republic. It is a sign of just how important the pope's legacy was felt to be - in this most secular of states - that even here flags flew at half mast on public buildings across the country, a very official acknowledgement of the pope's significance to Czechs.

Thursday finally brought a breakthrough in the long drawn-out government crisis: the embattled Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross made a shock announcement: he said he was ready to step down and allow a new government to form under a different leader from his own party.

On Wednesday the Czech government confirmed that it is selling its 51-percent stake in Cesky Telecom to Spain's Telefonica. The price - 82.6 billion crowns, or around 3.5 billion US dollars - was considerably higher than expected, and the sell-off is the last major privatisation of the post-communist era. But who are Telefonica? And what impact will this huge investment have on the Czech telecoms market? I discussed the sell-off with Emir Halilovic, senior analyst at communications group IDC CEMA.

International and national experts came together at Prague's Charles University this week to discuss the legal aspects of counter-terrorism. Besides political, technical, and human rights issues, the conference also focused on inter-state cooperation. Washington and Brussels have clear-cut ways of dealing with terrorism but what about smaller individual countries, such as the Czech Republic, where the threat of a terrorist attack is far smaller?