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One of the Czech Republic's greatest athletes, Roman Sebrle, has seen his dream of a first gold medal at the World Athletics Championships dashed, after he was beaten into second place in the decathlon on Wednesday by his greatest rival, Bryan Clay of the USA. At the beginning of day two of the decathlon things looked good for the Olympic champion, but poor performances in some disciplines meant Sebrle had, in the end, to settle for silver.

Prague Castle has been the dramatic setting for the Summer Shakespeare Festival now for eleven years. It was former president Vaclav Havel, himself a celebrated playwright, who thought that The Bard's work might best be experienced there, on a midsummer night. From a single production of Romeo and Juliet in the summer of 1994, the festival has become a major cultural event.

Rudolf Smid is a photographer, but you won't see him round any fashion models. He specializes in scarecrows and he's willing to walk miles for a new discovery. After eleven years of tramping around the country he has collected enough stunning photographs to show the public a world of mystical beings that have lived in our midst for generations.

Not long after Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek threatened a "night of the long knives" for the civil service if his party wins the next elections, he now finds himself under the spotlight for holding talks with a small nationalist grouping. On Tuesday Mr Topolanek met Petra Edelmannova, the leader of the marginal right-wing National Party, though he told reporters the talks had no particular goal. But is there a chance the Civic Democrats could in some way link up with the National Party in the future?

Towards the end of the 19th century the European beaver disappeared from this part of the world, due to over-hunting for meat and pelts. The animal was reintroduced in the Czech Republic in the early 1990s, with some of the country's beaver population also "immigrating" from Austria and Bavaria.

Scores of mostly young people were injured the last weekend in July as police in riot gear moved in to break up an annual free techno festival known as CzechTek. Nearly twice as many police were injured in the line of duty, but allegations of police brutality have dominated the headlines. Brian Kenety spoke about the issue with lawyer Jiri Kopal, whose pro bono organisation is representing several alleged victims of police brutality at CzechTek and is calling for the establishment of an independent body to address complaints against the police.

While commuting long distances to work is a normal part of life in many countries, Czechs have traditionally been reluctant to commute. But the trend is now beginning to catch on in this country; and according to data released by the Statistical Office around 170,000 people commute to Prague every day.

Croatia's Adriatic Coast is the most popular foreign holiday destination for Czechs, with an estimated 800,000 expected to flock there this summer, that's nearly a tenth of the whole Czech population. But several Czech tourists have suffered accidents in Croatia this summer, with 14 dying, several of them at sea. Now the country's police have issued an appeal: they say Czechs should behave more carefully, and not underestimate the dangers of the Adriatic.

In the Czech Republic, over 65,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year and over 28,000 die from the disease. But Czechs seem to be more prone to get some types of cancer than others. Four times as many Czech women are diagnosed with cervical cancer than their Scandinavian counterparts.

The Czech Republic posted a foreign trade deficit of 7.8 billion crowns in the first of half of 2004. One year on, economic data released on Monday has shown a dramatic turnaround, with this country now boasting a foreign trade surplus of 38 billion crowns in the first six months of this year. The markets were expecting good news, but the record high figure for the month of June caught analysts by surprise. Brian Kenety has more.