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Allegations that state officials - including Agriculture Minister Petr Zgarba - have passed on inside information to land speculators has prompted an intensive review of land transfer and privatisation deals made this summer. At the centre of the investigation is a state-owned parcel of land sold to a friend of Minister Zgarba for just $160,000 (4 million crowns) that is now said to have a market value of over $60 million.

November 7th had a very special place in the calendar of communist Czechoslovakia. Preparations started well in advance to mark the Soviet National Holiday, which was the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, and celebrations would go on for another thirty days, known as "The Month of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship". The young generation of Czechs are completely oblivious of the holiday but some older Czechs have fond memories of the 7th of November because unlike other communist era holidays, it was actually often fun.

Aenne Burda, the founder of the Burda-Moden fashion publishing group and one of Germany's most successful businesswomen, died on Thursday aged 96. During communist times, Burda magazine was one of only very few sources of inspiration for Czech women. Copies of the magazine were circulated readily among Czech women who made their own clothes based on the magazine's patterns, which were markedly different from those available in Czechoslovakia at the time.

The pig farm at Lety has proven to be an embarrassment for a succession of Czech governments: in the early 90s, the media revealed that the farm stood on the site of a notorious concentration camp, where Romanies were interned by the Nazi Protectorate in World War II. More than 300 people - the majority of them children - died there, succumbing to disease in appalling conditions, while a further 800 were sent on to Auschwitz and other death camps. In view of the shameful circumstances several Czech governments tried to have the pig farm removed

This month, a new mentoring project will be launched in the Moravian capital Brno, in which university students visit the homes of Roma schoolchildren to motivate them and help improve their grades. The Association of Roma in Moravia has earmarked some 350,000 crowns (just over 14,000 US dollars) for the project - enough for free private tutorials until the end of next year.

The final days of World War II remain among the bloodiest that Czechs can remember - with countless atrocities against civilians committed by the Nazis even as the Czechs rose up against them. In the Pelhrimov region, just days before the end of the war, German forces swept into the village of Leskovice, killing twenty-five people, and razing the village to the ground. No one was ever punished for the atrocity. What's more, research by a Czech investigative reporter has reportedly shown that the man responsible for ordering the massacre - former

Now, have you heard the one about the Skoda which beat all of Europe's best-known car manufacturers in a readers' survey? Well, you have now. The days when Skoda was the laughing stock of the car world are of course well and truly over, but Skoda's reputation in Britain - one of Europe's biggest car markets - is going from strength to strength, according to a new survey.

The hunting season in the Czech Republic is in full swing. On Tuesday, the small game shooting season opened, allowing licensed hunters to shoot hare, rabbit, duck and pheasant. Each year the autumn season attracts lots of hunters from abroad and it's not only the favourable exchange rate that inspires them to come.

The Czech Parliament on Tuesday passed a significant tax cut which will affect some 4 million Czech taxpayers next year. Employees will save an average of around 400 crowns per month - or about 13 US dollars. That isn't much but it is significant when one considers that in the Czech Republic the average monthly salary still averages only 18,000 crowns - around 800 dollars US. In that light, many Czechs will see the break as a significant step.

Millions of people around the world could not imagine their life without modern contact lenses. But few of them know that the man who invented them was professor Otto Wichterle, an outstanding Czech chemist who had many notable achievements to his name, and died in 1998. This week academics and scientists from around the Czech Republic gathered outside the Prague Institute of Macro-Molecular Chemistry for the unveiling of a monument to one of the great minds of the last century.