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Situated some 100 kilometres north of Prague, the town Jablonec nad Nisou has a lot to be proud of - predominantly its glass and jewellery -two major export articles that have made it renown all over the world. Last week Jablonec hit the headlines as the first Czech town to get its own town "anthem" on the occasion of its 140th birthday next year. Contrary to what you might expect the lyrics are not about glass or jewellery - they are about apples and love!

Kumar Vishwanathan is originally from southern India. He was leading a quiet life as a teacher in a provincial Czech town when in 1997 disastrous floods swept through the eastern part of the Czech Republic and changed his life for ever. Quite spontaneously he decided to help Romany families who had lost their homes in the industrial city of Ostrava near the Polish border. He thought he would stay for a few weeks. Eight years later, along with his wife and small son, he is still there, working untiringly to build bridges between Roma and non-Roma

The Czech media are awash with claims by a Swedish newspaper that a leading Swedish terror suspect has been arrested in Prague. The tabloid Expressen reported on Tuesday that a 39-year-old Swedish citizen accused of terrorism by the United States has been detained by the Czech authorities.

Churches and faith groups from across the religious spectrum have been united by their opposition to a paragraph in the draft penal code, currently under discussion in the Czech parliament. Under the new code, euthanasia would no longer by treated as murder, but a special offence punishable by a maximum of six years in prison. The state's softening stance towards mercy killing has set alarm bells ringing among the religious community, as Rob Cameron reports.

Every first Thursday of the month the Czech Center in New York hosts an informal party called DOH-BREE DEHN, a phonetic transcription of the Czech for 'hello'. This month New York artist, Eleanor Dubinsky, presented a video installation taking public transport as its inspiration. The images were projected on multiple screens of subway trains from New York City and Prague and accompanied by Ms. Dubinsky's live performance, using dance, cello and voice. The piece is entitled 'Transit', and she was first inspired to create the work while she was living

The Czech leather industry is up in arms. The wife of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, Heather Mills McCartney, said last week that there is a thriving cat and dog skins industry and trade in the Czech Republic. Ms Mills went so far as to say that thousands of domestic cats are stolen off the streets for their fur and skinned alive in this country. The response of Czech fur traders has been one of indignation whereas Czech animal campaigners have reacted with caution.

It's part of the childhood memories of generations of Prague citizens. For more than a century, the famous wooden merry-go-round on Letna Hill has both thrilled and scared tens of thousands of children with its grinning, almost life-size horses. With eleven decades of non-stop operation the Letna merry-go-round is the oldest working carousel in Europe. It is now undergoing repairs to be soon restored to its original glory.

'We meet EU criteria, inflation has gone back down to 2.2 percent; as far as our economy is concerned we have nothing to be ashamed of' - words with which Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek greeted EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia this week.

Since his appointment just five weeks ago, Health Minister David Rath has been at the centre of one controversy after another. After putting the state health insurer under forced administration he accused several opposition Civic Democrats of stripping its assets. In response they have filed a number of libel suits against the minister, who they say has himself been involved in dubious deals. I discussed the explosive impact of Mr Rath on Czech politics with commentator Erik Best.

On Wednesday night Czech football side Sparta Prague had one last chance at redemption in what has been a truly miserable autumn season: a win over 3rd place Swiss side Thun would not have gotten Sparta through to the next stage of the Champions League, but it would have at least guaranteed the team a place in the other major European tournament, the UEFA Cup. But, it was not to be. Sparta failed to raise their game, and came up short - again.