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The National Gallery's second International Biennale of Contemporary Art called "A Second Sight" opened its doors to the public on Tuesday. The exhibition is the result of close cooperation between 31 curators from all over the world, who have selected works of some four hundred artists from as far afield as Chile and South Africa. This year it's showing at three venues in Prague, covering over 9,000 m2 of exhibition space.

The Council of EU Foreign Ministers on Monday approved a joint foreign policy line with respect to Cuba. Although they criticized the Castro regime for its human rights record, the council voted to extend a suspension of EU sanctions against Cuba until next June. This came as a great disappointment to Czech foreign ministry officials who spearheaded a drive to see diplomatic sanctions re-imposed.

Charles IV, the 14th-century Holy Roman emperor and King of Bohemia has been making headlines lately. Just days after the news was released about the discovery of his original burial chamber at Prague Castle, Charles IV was elected the Greatest Czech of all time.

Every year at this time the Czech Republic commemorates one of the most horrific atrocities committed on Czech territory during World War II. On 10th June 1942, at the height of the German occupation, the quiet village of Lidice, some 20 kilometres west of Prague, was razed to the ground, all the men were shot and all but a handful of the children were sent to Poland where they were gassed. 143 of the women of the village survived in the Ravensbruck concentration camp and when they came home they found nothing but an open field where the village

Vlastimil Horvath, the winner of this year's Pop Idol contest in the Czech Republic had the packed sports hall in Prague's Vystaviste on it feet on Sunday night with the hits The Final Countdown and Love is all Around.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC opens its halls to artists of different countries once a year. Audiences have already been able to hear French and Israeli musicians, and China is lined up for next year. But this year it's the Czechs' turn. The 14th and 17th June have been booked for top Czech musicians, who are going to represent their country at a Festival of Czech Music.

The 15th annual Prague Writers' Festival wrapped up on Wednesday. But before it ended the festival offered one last discussion, with the promising title "Those in the dark are not seen". Featuring authors like Israel's David Grossman and Russian literary star Viktor Erofeyev, the discussion was nothing less than fascinating.

The largest party in the Czech government, the Social Democrats have not had many reasons to be happy in recent months. Because of widespread disillusion with their policies and a series of political scandals, their preferences have dropped rapidly from the 30 percent they gained in the last elections three years ago, to only 10 percent in April this year. But the latest opinion polls suggest that the Social Democrats' popularity is on the rise again, with a more than six percent jump in less than two months. What is behind this sudden change of

When we talk about "Europeans", who do we have in mind? Can all Europeans be put into one basket when it comes to values and characteristics? That's what the international research agencies Euro RSCG and TNS wanted to find out when they conducted a telephone poll to determine who the Europeans really are.

The Czech national football squad did it again on Wednesday. Just five days after their 8-1 win over Andorra in their Group One World Cup qualifier, they managed to score another six goals against Macedonia, at home in the town of Teplice. But the Czechs still remain in second place in their group, after the Dutch beat Finland 4-0.