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These days the area around Slavkov near Brno is probably best-known for recreations of the famous Battle of Austerlitz where Napoleon was victorious in 1805. But on Wednesday it saw excitement of a different nature: numerous police - complete with helicopter circling overhead - searching for clues at the scene of the second largest heist in the country's history. In the area, early on Wednesday, crooks - posing as police - waved down a Brinks truck that thought it was stopping for a routine control check. Within seconds, its occupants were forced

For a relatively small central European country of over ten million, the Czech Republic is doing its share to help needy children in Africa. Over the past four years, Czechs have donated over seven million crowns ($321 000 USD) to UNICEF, and Czech donations make-up three percent of the annual $12 million UNICEF budget in Rwanda. Although the wounds of the genocide in Rwanda are slowing healing, over 60% of the country's 8.2 million inhabitants live below the poverty line, and more than half of Rwanda's total population is younger than eighteen.

Jan Zelezny is widely believed to be the greatest athlete to have ever thrown the javelin. He holds the world record in the discipline, and has been both Olympic and World Champion three times. His long and glittering career came to an end on Wednesday night, when Zelenzy, now 40, took part in his final competition, the European Championships. Fittingly, he came away with one last medal.

For many of us life without a personal computer would be unthinkable. Would you believe that the first IBM PC was launched on the world market just 25 years ago this Saturday? In the Czech Republic, an estimated 2.5 million of the country's 10 million inhabitants now own a PC - and some 400,000 personal computers are sold every year. But what was the situation like here a quarter of a century ago, when the PC was a luxury and the Communists were in power? Dita Asiedu spoke to Petr Koubsky of the IT magazine Inside:

Figures just released by the Czech Statistical Office indicate that in spite of the country's drawn out political crisis and the growing price of oil on world markets the country's economy is booming. The Czech Republic is currently the world's sixth biggest exporter, with the highest export figures in Europe.

Last weekend was a momentous one for Czech long-distance swimming: Yvetta Hlavacova set a new women's world record for swimming the English Channel, while David Cech became the first Czech to swim the Channel in both directions. While Cech has been enjoying his success, Hlavacova has surprised many by saying she wants to brave the Channel again in just a few weeks' time.

After July's tropical heat most people welcomed the first August showers with relief. But several days of persistent rain have produced a different problem - a wave of floods which started on the exact same date as the devastating floods of 2002.

This week is likely to be a crucial one in deciding the next government, but what kind of a government might it be? The Civic Democrats, who won the election, say that there are only two viable options: their minority government supported across the political spectrum by everyone but the Communists - or early elections. The Social Democrats who came in second, on the other hand, have been pushing for something quite different: some kind of agreement that would see them maintain no small measure of political influence.

Fisherman Ladislav Mervinsky was dumbstruck when he caught a salmon - over a metre in length - in the river Elbe (Labe) close to the Czech-German border in north Bohemia. This is the first time since 1954 that a salmon was caught in the Elbe. Not too long ago, the river was considered one of the dirtiest rivers in Europe. So what's brought the fresh-water fish, known to live in only the cleanest of waters, back to the Elbe? Dita Asiedu reports:

For some months now there has been speculation about the United States building a new missile base somewhere in Central Europe. Initially analysts tipped Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as key candidate countries for the base. Hungary now appears to be out of the running and it would seem the chances of a base being built here are increasing - on Sunday the Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, said it was almost certain Prague would play some part in the project. Richard Krpac, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, explains the latest