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The BBC Symphony Orchestra, one of the world's great orchestras, has announced the name of its new Chief Conductor. It is Jiri Belohlavek, one of the most acclaimed Czech conductors, who is to replace the American Leonard Slatkin at the helm of the orchestra next year.

Fifteen years after the fall of communism the Czech Republic still has a complicated system of regulated rents. If you've been living for 20 years in the same flat and hold the same lease, you pay a low rent regulated by law. But if you don't have such lease; you are usually doomed to pay the full market price. For an identical flat you'll find yourself paying up to five times more. The Czech government now says it would like to change this system and slowly deregulate rents.

Despite strong opposition from the Czech Republic and Poland -- two new European Union member states that had lived under communist regimes -- EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to end a diplomatic freeze imposed on Cuba following the imprisonment there of 75 political activists in March 2003. But the Czechs and Poles won a moral victory in successfully pushing to allow for individual EU states to choose sides in the so-called "cocktail wars" that followed.

The Czech Prime Minister and head of the Social Democratic Party Stanislav Gross has found himself in a predicament that has broken many a politician's back in the democratic world. He is either unable or unwilling to explain the source of the money with which he bought a luxury flat in Prague.

This Monday marks the 220th anniversary of the birth of one of the great daughters of the Czech nation. Magdalena Dobromila Rettigova was a woman of many talents and interests but today she is perhaps best-known for her famous cookery book, which can still be found on many a bookshelf in the Czech Republic.

Following the revolution, Czech society went through a whirlwind of change. Jiri Svoboda's new film Sametove Vrazi, Velvet Murderers, examines the shadow of the post-revolutionary euphoria. The film is based on the true story of five men whose drive to take advantage of the new market opportunities spun out of control and led them to commit a series of unprecedented gruesome murders for relatively insignificant amounts of money.

After five years of field studies in Roma settlements in Eastern Slovakia, cultural anthropologist, Marek Jakoubek has sparked controversy. He claims that the Roma are not an ethnic group, arguing that they do not identify themselves as such. Jakoubek's claims have caused fury in some circles. He presented his ideas at a conference about multiculturalism in Prague this week.

Iraqis living abroad have begun casting their votes in the country's landmark general election, two days before polling stations open in Iraq. Members of the Iraqi community living in the Czech Republic registered for the vote last week in neighbouring Germany and most of them are going to the polls on Saturday, to join what is probably the largest ever out-of-country voting programme.

In Brno's National Theatre last week 'the halls were alive' with the sound of Britain's Royal Opera. Under the direction of David Pountney, and the baton of Christian von Gehren, members of the Royal Opera were in the Czech Republic's second city to perform the lesser-known first version of Bohuslav Martinu's 'Greek Passion'. Some 48 years after its completion, this was its Czech premiere. Rosie Johnston explains exactly what took so long...

A special "People-to-People" cultural exchange project between the EU and Japan was launched in Prague this week. It is an initiative which hopes to raise awareness of Japanese culture in the countries of the European Union. Various events will be held in the Czech Republic over the coming year within the framework of the project.