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In China on Tuesday the Czech prime minister, Jiri Paroubek, discussed future trade possibilities with his Chinese counterpart that included not only opportunities for well-known Czech firms, but also opportunities for Chinese companies here - in the Czech Republic. Mr Paroubek made clear he would like to see the Czech Republic become a gateway for Chinese businesses and investment within the EU.

The great Czech composer Bedrich Smetana was born in Litomysl, a picturesque town in the Bohemian-Moravian borderlands. Since 1949 - 125 years after Smetana's birth - Litomysl has been hosting an annual opera festival in his honour. Radio Prague's Martin Mikule is in the town for this year's Smetanova Litomysl and joins me on the phone now. Martin what are some of the highlights of this year's festival?

There were reports last week that the parents of Daniel Radcliffe, the teenage actor who plays Harry Potter, did not want him to film in Prague. The reason: the city's wild night life and sex industry. Those reports were subsequently denied by the family, but not before UK-based Czech journalist Jan Jun and his son Dominik wrote to the Radcliffes, rejecting Prague's reputation - particularly in Britain - as a centre for sleaze. Dominik Jun is the editor of quarterly New Presence - what exactly was in the letter to "Harry Potter's" parents.

A handful of people gathered on Monday at Prague's Vinohrady Cemetery to mark the 60th anniversary of the death of Czechoslovakia's third President, Emil Hacha. It was an event that wasn't marked with pomp and ceremony: Emil Hacha remained in office throughout the German wartime occupation, and he is remembered by many as a symbol of wartime collaboration. David Vaughan reports.

The next general election is still a year away but already the right-of-centre, opposition Civic Democrats are gearing up for a changing of the political guard. Speaking last week at a meeting with Czech businessmen the party's leader Miroslav Topolanek promised big changes - in his words a "night of the long knives" in the public sector following eight years of Social Democrat rule. That's tough talk indeed.

The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek is on his longest foreign trip since taking office two months ago. After visiting Japan last week where he met top officials including the Japanese Emperor Akihito, he moved on to China on Saturday where his talks focused mostly on Czech-Chinese trade relations. At the last minute a meeting was also set up with the Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"Workers of the world, lick your arse!" screams the larger-than-life Kraus from his balcony. This is a scene from the 1999 film Pelisky; with black humour the film portrays some of the realities of communism, Czech-style, in the late 60s. Kraus is played by one of the legends of the Czech acting profession, Jiri Kodet, who died on Saturday at the age of 67 after a long illness.

In the years from 1939-1945, thousands of Jewish Czechs and Slovaks fought against the Nazis around the world, some within the armies that were resisting Hitler, and others in the underground. Twenty-six panels of photographs and other archive materials documented their lives and activities at Prague's Chamber of Deputies. The exhibition featured a part of Czechoslovak history that most Czechs know little about.

The very first refugee entered Czechoslovakia shortly after the Velvet Revolution fifteen years ago. Since then many more have applied for asylum. Having fled their countries now they deal with boredom and loneliness in refugee camps and with the mistrust and prejudice of people around them. To raise awareness and tolerance, a new project called "Under One Sun" has been set up, organized by the refugee camp authorities themselves. They try to bring together both refugees and Czechs at cultural events, literary and also singing competitions. Jarka Halkova

Gratias Agit is the name of an award presented by the Czech foreign ministry to honour those who have promoted the good name of the Czech Republic around the world. Among the individuals and organizations made laureates at this year's ceremony on Thursday: the industrialist Tomas Bata and Viktor Fischl, a poet who was a close associate of Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister in the Czechoslovak government in exile during World War II.