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Up to 30,000 people in this country of ten million are believed to be addicted to hard drugs. Until recently, drop-in centres in the Czech Republic tested drug users for dangerous diseases and infections. But that service was discontinued last year and it is now feared that several thousand drug addicts are walking around with an infectious disease they do not even know they have.

Like most small nations, Czechs are proud of their inventions. Pilsner beer, the word "robot" and even the soft contact lens are some of the contributions made to world culture and science by Czechs. A more recent technological innovation, the DMS, or Donors Message Service, is a big success inside the Czech Republic, and the inventors think it will soon catch on elsewhere too.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has begun hearing an appeal in the case of 18 Romany children from Ostrava, whose parents claim their placing in special schools for the mentally retarded amounted to discrimination. Such schools have since been renamed in the Czech Republic, but the problem remains; most Romany children generally receive a sub-standard education. Last year the Court ruled against the applicants; this appeal is the families' last chance. David Strupek is the lawyer representing the 18 families,

In 80 locations around Prague posters have just appeared announcing bizarre regulations curtailing the liberty of evidently randomly chosen sections of society, such as people with freckles. The city's Jewish Museum is behind the campaign - it aims to interest young people in history by reminding them of the fate of Jews before and during World War II.

The Czech Republic's seven-month long government crisis may be coming to an end. The balance of power in the lower house, which has been deadlocked since the June general elections, swung in favor of the centre right coalition government on Tuesday. The prime minister announced that he had made a tolerance-deal with two rebel Social Democrat deputies, which would enable his cabinet to win Friday's crucial confidence vote in Parliament.

Forty-three year old Lech Sydor from eastern Moravia was promised a job as a masseur in a rehabilitation centre. When the centre's management found out that he was gay, it refused to employ him. Mr Sydor took his case to court and won. As Dita Asiedu reports, this is a landmark case in the Czech Republic where a court has never before ruled on a sexual orientation discrimination case:

Tuesday marks the 38th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach, the young student whose suicide transformed him into a symbol of Czechoslovak resistance following the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Jan Palach would have turned 59 this year he not taken his own life. His legacy, however, lives on.

Sentences were handed down on Monday in what has been described as one of the biggest cases of organised crime in the Czech Republic, that of the so-called Berdych gang, an infamous criminal grouping named after alleged ringleader David Berdych. On Monday nineteen members of the gang, including former police officers, were given a total of 118 years in prison for crimes including, kidnapping, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy.

With a large English-speaking community, it's perhaps surprising that Prague does not have an English-language theatre scene like those that can be found in other major European capitals like Paris and Berlin. Now a new playwriting competition sponsored by The Prague Post could help rectify this situation. Offering a first prize of 20,000 CZK and productions for the three best scripts, it is hoped that this drama contest could boost interest in English-language theatre in Prague.

Seven months after the country's general elections the Czech Republic is still without a stable government, the lower house is paralyzed by the even division of power between left and right parties and the speaker of the lower chamber is about to resign from office. At the present time it seems that the one institution which remains a beacon of stability is the Office of the President. After four years in office, President Vaclav Klaus has a 67 percent popularity rating and the majority of Czechs would like to see him re-elected in next year's