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A referendum took place over the weekend in Brno, the Czech Republic's second largest city. It was to decide if the city's main train station should be moved from its current location in the center of the city. As Martin Hrobsky reports, the vote - that was meant to get people involved in the democratic process - failed to catch the attention of most of the city's inhabitants.

Thursday saw the Prague premiere of a fascinating documentary film, made by the Austrian director Stephan Settele. The film, called "Gilaven! Sing!" looks at the life and work of one of the most charismatic of all Czech performers, the half Czech, half Romany singer, Ida Kelarova. As well as engaging audiences as a hugely gifted and dynamic performer in her own right, Ida Kelarova has won international acclaim for her musical workshops, where she helps people to find ways of releasing their emotions into song. She has a fundamental belief that

Karlovy Vary - the biggest and most elegant Czech spa town - is hosting an annual balneology fair this week. For the uninitiated, that means a fair looking at issues connected with spas. Going for spa cure is something deeply rooted in Central European culture. This year the event includes a conference about the economic aspects of balneology. Spa doctors and managers are discussing conditions in the business in the Czech Republic following the enlargement of the European Union.

It has been more than 100 days since Social Democrat Stanislav Gross was named prime minister, after an appalling showing by the Social Democrats in June's European elections led his predecessor, Vladimir Spidla to resign. By many accounts the new prime minister has consolidated his position rather well: not only did he manage to quell political differences within his own party that had threatened to tear the Social Democrats apart, but he has also launched what many - even grudging critics - see as a highly effective campaign aimed at stemming

After months of negotiations, American aircraft giant Boeing is ready to give up its share of Aero Vodochody, a Czech airplane manufacturer that has seen more than a decade of hard times.

Do you know what the rarest Czechoslovak banknote is? Or where the country's first notes were printed? One person who knows all about that subject is collector Miroslav Krist, the man behind an exhibition of banknotes from around the world currently on at Kozel Chateau, near Pilsen. When I spoke to Mr Krist this week he began by telling me which personalities had figured on the very first Czechoslovak notes.

It may seem hard to believe but it is fifteen years since the world witnessed the dramatic days of social upheaval and protest that eventually led to the fall of Communism in Europe. At the time reform movements in the Soviet satellites were given a new impetus by the Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev who announced "Life punishes those who come too late". The scenes in Berlin in November 1989 are vividly remembered, but we sometimes forget one of the last episodes just before those heady days - in the autumn of that same year thousands

This year's U.S. presidential elections have attracted attention world-wide, but there's one place in the Czech Republic where the contest carries special resonance: Horni Benesov, a village in northern Moravia, that was once home to Democrat challenger John F. Kerry's grandfather, Fritz Kohn, who emigrated to the U.S. in 1905.

Imagine the frustration Czech domestic violence victims must feel if what advocates say is true. They may endure abuse for years because they can't expect help from police until it's too late. That's because Czech police can only intervene in severe cases. But this is an obstacle that a victims' help group and high profile politicians hope to remove with a proposed law.

During his first official visit to the European Union institutions and NATO headquarters in Brussels, the Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross on Tuesday backed Turkey's EU membership bid, pledged to boost the Czech Republic's defense budget to honor its NATO commitments, and rejected calls for EU-wide tax harmonization. Analysts say the former Czech interior minister, whose critics at home often portray him as weak on foreign policy, avoided speaking to controversial issues but nonetheless made a strong impression.