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Vaclav Klaus spent three days in Israel this week, his first official visit to the country since becoming president. Mr Klaus held talks with senior Israeli officials and visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and also pleased his hosts by saying the Czech Republic would help the EU to adopt what he called a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The latest film by Czech director and screenwriter Bohdan Slama, "Stesti" or "Something Like Happiness" has just premiered in Prague to high critical acclaim. Slama's previous feature "The Wild Bees" ("Divoke vcely") received a number of international awards, and according to reviewers, "Something Like Happiness" stands a similar chance.

While Italy has Silvio Berlusconi the Czech Republic has Vladimir Zelezny - TV magnate turned politician. Mr Zelezny is the former general director of the popular commercial station TV Nova and currently a European Parliament member for the Independent Democrats, a party that he himself founded. Under investigation for tax evasion amounting to 6.8 million crowns (some 280,000 US dollars), Vladimir Zelezny faces being stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

Czech archaeologists are keeping a very low profile this week after it emerged that a find which they claimed to be the statuette of a Persian Goddess dating back to the fifth century was nothing but a five year old fake allegedly created by teenagers for fun.

A dentist's drill is probably not a favourite sounds for most of us, but think how much worse off we would be without dentists. The Czech Chamber of Dentists is raising the alarm, that the Czech Republic could soon be threatened with just such a situation. Unless the state changes its attitude, they say, the country will soon face a critical shortage of dentists.

The Romany violinist and signer Iva Bittova is one of the Czech Republic's leading avant-garde musicians. She is also well respected abroad, particularly in the United States, and this week launched a new album recorded with New York ensemble Bang on a Can All Stars.

The average Czech has more pocket money than his or her neighbours in fellow post-communist countries like Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. But according to a new survey out this week, there is a growing East-West divide within the Czech Republic itself, and concern that a "two-speed" economy is developing.

The long-standing leader of the Communist Party, Miroslav Grebenicek, announced his intention to resign on Monday, citing policy differences in the Communist Party leadership. Mr Grebenicek is seen very much as a hardliner, so is his potential departure a sign of change within the party?

Hundreds of elderly men took part in an emotional gathering at the Ministry of Defence on Monday, recalling their days in the "army" as young men. But they weren't regular soldiers - not allowed to carry weapons, they were in reality forced labourers, punished by the Communists for their class backgrounds.

The Czech Republic's foremost expert on Romany culture and language, Milena Hubschmannova has died at the age of 72. She was involved in a car crash in South Africa in which one other person was killed and several were injured. As David Vaughan reports, her death is a huge loss, and not just to the Romany community to whom she devoted much of her life.