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All eyes will be on a muddy football pitch in Oslo this Saturday, as the Czech Republic do battle with Norway for one of five places left open for next year's World Cup in Germany. The Czech Republic became independent in 1993, but has failed to qualify for the last three World Cups.

The Cabinet on Wednesday accepted Agriculture Minister Petr Zgarba's proposal that Parliament dismiss the entire board of the powerful Czech Land Fund - the body responsible for the sale and management of state-owned land. The proposed sacking of the Land Fund board - of which Mr Zgarba is chairman - comes in reaction to outcry over the sale this summer to "speculators" of property now worth hundreds of times the asking price.

Imagine the following scene: you are shopping at your local supermarket - wondering what brand of cornflakes you want for breakfast - when you see a man with a gun wondering around, occasionally taking aim and firing, while the management takes no notice. Believe it or not shoppers in a Tesco store in the West Bohemian town of Pilsen really witnessed this scary scene.

The fallout continues from the escape earlier this week of two convicted murderers from Pilsen's Bory prison. The prison's director has already resigned, but two cabinet ministers are now involved in a row over who bears responsibility for the escape.

This week, people in Prague have a unique opportunity to try traditional dishes and delicacies from faraway Peru - the motherland of the potato. A weeklong Peruvian gastronomy festival in one of Prague's hotels offers a taste of a cuisine blending ancestral Inca flavours with European and Asian influences. But there are more links between Czechs and Peruvians than the prominent status of the potato in their cuisines.

The shadow economy of the Czech Republic is thought to employ hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers. They come mainly from Ukraine and Slovakia, Vietnam and Russia. On Tuesday --just as the Interior Ministry was outlining plans to close several asylum centres due to dwindling numbers of refugees-- Czech non-profit organisations issued a clarion call for the "regularisation" of illegal workers.

In the run up to joining the European Union last year, the Phare programme was the main channel through which the Czech Republic received financial assistance for various projects. But in future the EU may become a good deal more cautious in what it offers to Czech businesses and public administrations. Eight people entrusted with the process of transferring money from the Phare fund to the Czech Republic are now suspected of having tried to put millions of crowns into their own pockets.

This year we have had a glorious and mild autumn with few signs of the winter to come. So it seems so much the more strange to see Christmas trees, Santa Claus and jingling bells here in the heart of Prague. Christmas decorations are already going up in shops around the city, and the prize for milking the Yuletide season for all its worth has to go to the Flora Palace shopping centre in the district of Vinohrady. Ever since mid-October it has been decked out in its full seasonal regalia. Alexander Ohrn went down there to see how people feel about

The sixth annual series of New Czech Films took place over the weekend in the cultural hub that is the New York City. The films were screened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cinematek, and Czech Center New York hosted an informal gathering to kick off the weekend. Czech expats and friends alike had the unique opportunity to meet with famous Czech actor Jan Triska.

The Czech Interior Ministry has announced plans for changes to the country's asylum system, to reflect a fall in the number of refugees arriving in the Czech Republic each year. The ministry says it plans to close some centres and rebuild others, to improve conditions for asylum-seekers. Groups representing refugees have welcomed the proposals, but complain that other changes recently introduced actually curtail the rights of asylum seekers.