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On Tuesday, Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats, was sworn in as Germany's first ever woman chancellor at a ceremony in the Bundestag. On Wednesday, Mrs Merkel made her first official visit to Brussels and Paris, followed by a trip to London on Thursday, confirming the priorities of her government's foreign policy. But what developments can be expected in Germany's relations with its eastern neighbour the Czech Republic?

The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek is once again at the centre of attention after giving his backing to a Communist Party proposal to scrap the so-called screening laws. The laws were adopted in the early 1990s to prevent high ranking officials of the old Communist regime from gaining influential government and civil service posts after the Velvet Revolution. But sixteen years later, are the screening laws redundant?

A memorial concert was held last Saturday in the Merkin Concert Hall of the Kaufman Center in New York City in honour of composer Andrew Yin Svoboda, who passed away at the young age of 27, just a few months into his doctoral studies at the prestigious Columbia University. The event was sponsored by the university's Department of Music and a student-run organization called Columbia Composers organized the memorial along with the tireless efforts of the Svoboda family.

The corpses of some of Czechoslovakia's most celebrated war heroes may be serving as models in anatomy classes in Germany and Austria to this day. Thousands of political prisoners were murdered at the Ploetzensee detention and execution centre outside Berlin during WWII. Among them were nearly seven hundred Czech and Slovak resistance fighters, whose bodies were immediately sent on to medical universities and institutions within the Third Reich.

The ruling Social Democrats pooled their votes with the Communists in the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday to push through a controversial amendment to the law on Churches, overturning a recent veto by the Senate. Opponents to the bill say that it would seriously undermine the rights of churches and some deputies have already said they are prepared to take the matter to the Constitutional Court.

Last Tuesday the American Information Center presented a panel discussion about changes in the Czech Republic in the 16 years since the Velvet Revolution. Emphasis was placed on press freedom, the effect that the last 16 years have had on the quality of publications available in Prague today, and how those publications face new challenges in their struggle to survive. After the discussion, Alena Wratislavova talked to the organizer Jan Krc, who summarized some of the issues discussed.

Among Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's official engagements this week is a trip to the spa town of Piestany in neighbouring Slovakia. The trip is political rather than medicinal: as well as taking the waters, Mr Paroubek will be taking the temperature of Central Europe as he joins 16 other prime ministers for a meeting of the Central European Initiative.

Ask just about anyone who has ever visited Prague what commuting in the capital is like, they'll likely mention the classic red-and-white trams that criss-cross the city. For generations the tramcar has been as much a symbol of the Czech capital as any, an efficient and picturesque manner of getting from A to B. And, although in the 90s, modern low-level cars were introduced, one can still travel by older models. But, in December you might not want to: Prague will see the introduction of an altogether new tram: the much-awaited 14 T.

"The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War" is the episodic tale of a Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army whose own apparent stupidity is used to critique the absurdities of war. Translated into 60 languages, it is perhaps the best known Czech work of fiction of all time. Now, over 80 years after its publication, its author Jaroslav Hasek and illustrator Josef Lada have been reunited in a new collection.

Christmas is drawing close - and in this most Christmasy of countries - one of the first signs of the oncoming season is always the annual ritual of preparing the Christmas tree for Prague's Old Town Square.