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The Czech Republic now counts a record number of self-employed foreigners. Vietnamese top the list as the largest nationality, followed by Ukrainians. Despite EU integration making conditions easier for citizens from member states, the large majority of foreigners with business licenses are still from non-EU countries. This, however, shouldn't be taken as a sign that the application process has gotten any easier. Jason Hovet reports.

The Christian Democrats, one of the two smaller parties in the ruling coalition, have formulated a new bill which aims to compensate teachers and students who were thrown out of their positions during the communist era. Earlier this week Christian Democrat MP Vladimir Riha hosted a meeting attended by many of those affected.

The Czech international football goalkeeper Petr Cech has just been named the best goalkeeper in the world by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Cech, who plays for English mega-club Chelsea, has won that accolade at just 23 years of age.

We seem to be forever hearing about records being broken at Prague's Ruzyne Airport, with more and more passengers and flights every year. Ruzyne is well on its way to becoming the biggest airport in the central Europe region, and a major step in that expansion was the official opening on Tuesday of its new North 2 Terminal.

The new ultra-violent film "Hostel", presented by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Eli Roth, may have made headlines and shocked some in the US by beating King Kong on its opening weekend, but already it is clear the film, one of the most violent in years, will appeal mostly to horror fans. Anyone else, be warned. For Czechs, perhaps the most interesting thing about the film will be the fact that the film was shot in the Czech Republic featuring a number of local actors.

A huge cyanide leak into the River Labe - known internationally as the Elbe - has now contaminated an 80-kilometre stretch of the river, killing tons of fish. It is being described as one of the worst toxic spills in years, and environmentalists say that the full extent of damage to river life will only become apparent in the spring.

In the cold winter months, Prague's public trams and buses are full of homeless men and women in desperate need of a warm place to get through the night. There are an estimated 4,500 people without a home in Prague, and though there are shelters, they only have beds for 550 people. On especially cold nights, day centres open up their doors but all they have to offer is a warm place and uncomfortable chairs.

On a tour of neighbouring Visegrad countries, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz made a one-day working visit to Prague on Tuesday. At a time when Czech-Polish relations are extremely good, Prime Ministers Marcinkiewicz and Jiri Paroubek devoted much of their time to the question of alternate energy resources for central Europe.

Selling a country's image abroad is by no means an easy task - and when a survey six months ago indicated that many of the Czech Republic's neighbours thought the majority of Czechs were peasants whose major export was sunflower oil, it became alarmingly clear something needed to be done, to present the country in a rich, relevant, and above all, more truthful light. The Foreign Ministry announced a competition to find a new logo for the Czech Republic by the end of the year. The winner was chosen last week.

Michal Kraus, the longest serving deputy in the Czech lower house, has resigned. The Social Democrat MP had come under fire from the press and the opposition, over allegations he had been involved in a dubious business deal in Ghana. But Mr Kraus proclaimed his innocence to the end, saying he was stepping down for the good of his party ahead of elections in June.