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The fleet of largely outdated government planes used to ferry Czech government officials and the president from one foreign trip to another is clearly not up to the job. A Tupolev Tu-154 carrying the Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda on an 11-day tour of Latin American states was forced to make an emergency landing in Mauritania late Wednesday, following a hydraulics failure. This is the fifth time in recent months that planes carrying Czech government officials have been forced to make emergency landings.

All eyes were on Singapore on Wednesday for the announcement of who will host the 2012 Olympic Games. The winner - London - was a choice which surprised many, but the decision has also reinvigorated the debate over whether the Czech capital Prague stands a chance of hosting the world's greatest sporting event.

There are 14 films in competition at this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, with the winner of the Crystal Globe for best picture to be announced at the festival's closing ceremony on Saturday night. Among those on the seven-member grand jury is the American actress Ali MacGraw, perhaps best known for the hit 1970s film Love Story. Ian Willoughby spoke to Ali MacGraw in Karlovy Vary, and asked her if it was her first time on a jury, and how she was enjoying it.

The biggest star of this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is without doubt the much respected actor-director Robert Redford. He came at the invitation of his friend Madeleine Albright, the Prague-born former US secretary of state. And, he says, he also wanted to meet another world renowned figure, former Czech president Vaclav Havel.

A recent opinion poll commissioned by the Foreign Ministry that was carried out in six different countries - including Great Britain and the United States - was tried to find out what the Czech Republic's image abroad was. The outcome leaves much to be desired. Czechs are reportedly viewed as a sort of poor nation of simple villagers. And not only that; contrary to common stereotypes about good beer and beautiful girls, many foreigners surprisingly view the Czech Republic as a nation of producers of sunflower oil and tower clocks. Radio Prague's

Earlier this year the governing Social Democratic Party was in crisis, with a large fall-off in support after then prime minister Stanislav Gross became embroiled in scandal. But now, according to a fresh opinion poll, the Social Democrats have made a remarkable recovery, with the backing of almost 23 percent of Czech voters.

"The City of K.: Franz Kafka in Prague" is a new permanent exhibition at Prague's Herget Brickworks that opened to the public this week. Unlike other exhibitions held on the famous Prague Jewish writer, this one traces the steps of his life in the city, and combines more traditional exhibits - documents and photographs, with the audio-visual effects of video imagery, light and music.

Licence fees for public broadcasters Czech TV and Czech Radio have always been the subject of heated debate in Parliament, especially in 1997, the last time that fees were raised. For the last eight years every Czech household has paid the equivalent of 54 US dollars per year to Czech Radio and TV. Now, that appears set to change: on Wednesday lawmakers agreed to dramatically raise Czech TV's licence fees to almost double over the next three years (while Czech Radio gets a slight increase).

Bozena Nemcova's 19th century novel Babicka, or the Grandmother is one of the most important, and popular, texts in Czech literature. The 150th anniversary of its publication is being celebrated in Prague this week at the third World Congress of Czech Literary Studies. The congress is held every five years and is organised by the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University and the National Literary Archives. This year's theme: "The World in Czech Literature and Czech Literature in the World".

The 150-member Boston Gay Men's Chorus is one of New England's largest and most successful choirs. It has broken ground in affirming the positive image of the gay community in the United States, and is now on a tour of Europe. After highly successful concerts in Berlin and then Wroclaw in Poland, the chorus is now in Prague, where they will be singing in one of city's great concert venues. In Catholic Poland their concert was preceded by noisy anti-gay protests, so when he met up with the chorus's executive director, Steven Smith, Radio Prague's