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An exhibition of photographs of Communist-era shop windows called Nakupuji, or I Shop, has just opened at Prague's Galerie Vaclava Spaly. The photos were taken in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc in the mid- to late-1980s (and Russia in 1990) and represent a vivid and informative record of their time. The man who created them, Canadian-American photographer David Hlynsky, was in town for the exhibition opening, and I asked him 'why shop windows?'

The devastating effects of Hurrican Katrina continue to make headlines worldwide as the full scope of the disaster is revealed. The Czech government is sending 25 million crowns (around a million dollars) in humanitarian aid to parts of the United States affected by what is being called one of the country's worst natural disasters of all time.

A Czech scientific expedition has claimed to have found a lost Inca city at the highest altitude to date in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. A team of two Czech scientists and two researchers - including the head of the philosophy faculty of Olomouc, Ivo Bartecek - spent three weeks of the South American winter to prove that Inca and pre-Incan civilisations once existed at the highest regions of the Andean mountain range. The expedition centred on the area around Lake Titicaca. The Czechs hope to shed new light on the life of the Incas and their

The Czech National Library has just been presented with UNESCO's new "Jikji" Memory of the World award. The Library won the prize for a pioneering project in which old manuscripts are turned into digital form, or digitised. But is the system under threat from the internet giant Google?

Slovakia's public service TV station STV has found itself in hot water recently, after showing the Czech puppet show Spejbl and Hurvinek. The problem is that the law says all programmes for children under 12 have to be dubbed into Slovak. So after only three days, the programme was withdrawn and replaced by a domestic series.

The Czech Republic's second most watched television station, TV Prima, is up for sale. Reported to be among the interested buyers are international media heavyweights like the Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch. A recent change in the Czech broadcasting law - and success in the TV ratings battle - has greatly boosted TV Prima's market value.

Letna Plain - just a stone's throw from Prague Castle - was the venue for a colourful cultural event. Letni Letna, or Summer Letna, featured a wide variety of performers, including the world famous Cirque Baroque from France. Letni Letna has just come to an end, and I caught one of the last performances.

It has been just over a year since the Czech Republic joined the EU and the report card, in a sense is in. This week the European Commission released the results of the latest Eurobarometer poll - the first since ten new countries joined. It shows that Czechs - often seen as somewhat sceptical about the EU - are feeling increasingly satisfied with membership.

This year, for the fifteenth time, cultural and historical sites are being opened to the public for free as part of the European Heritage Days - a tradition that aims to increase public awareness of the importance of heritage. This year, the Europe-wide event was launched in Prague - for the first time in a post-communist country.

With the southern Gulf Coast states of the US still reeling from the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina and the subsequent floods, the Czech Republic has offered to help. On Monday morning the Czech president and prime minister both had meetings with the US Ambassador in Prague, William Cabaniss. But what kind of help can a small country like the Czech Republic actually give?