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Among the special guests at Vaclav Havel's Forum 2000 conference earlier this week was the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. But he didn't leave the Czech capital straight after the event. On Wednesday Czechs got a rare chance to see one of the world's most famous religious leaders in the flesh, when the Dalai Lama made an appearance at Sparta Prague basketball stadium. Emily Udell met some of the thousands who turned out for this unusual event.

Little over a week after Czech teenager Tatana Kucharova was named Miss World - the first Czech ever to win that crown - the country has taken another international "beauty" title: muscle-man Tomas Bures has just won Mr Universe, the competition which launched the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The world has been full of speculation over Cuba's future since President Fidel Castro's retreat from the political scene this summer. The 79-year old leader has transferred his duties to a governing body that is led by his brother Raul, who is 75. While Cuba insists that the transfer of power is only temporary, opposition activists believe Castro is too ill to return to politics.

Preparations are in full swing for the first-ever international fly fishing competition which is to be held on the Vltava River in Prague this weekend. On Tuesday the Czech Anglers' Association released 10,000 rainbow trout and American brook trout into the river and some 200 anglers are expected to descend on Prague for the big event, which is held under the auspices of the Prague Town Hall and is expected to attract hundreds of tourists. Martin Grun is one of the organizers of Orvis Cup 2006:

A plan just released by the Agriculture Ministry specifies some 200 locations around the Czech Republic where dams could be built in the future. The document has alarmed the local authorities in many villages around the country which would be affected by future dam construction. Those opposed to the large dam-building project have wasted no time in getting organised and are planning to fight it at the highest level.

President Vaclav Klaus begins talks on Thursday to resolve the ongoing political crisis. Last week Mirek Topolanek failed to win a vote of confidence in his minority cabinet, and on Wednesday he'll formally submit his resignation to the president. The ball is now back in Mr Klaus's court - so what lies in store for a country which has spent the last four months without a proper government?

Distilleries around the country are exceptionally busy these days as farmers are bringing in their plum crops which are unusually plentiful this year. It is a tradition in Central and Eastern Europe that farmers distil their own plum brandy or "slivovice". It can either be homemade or fruit growers can use the services of local distilleries which are now running at full capacity.

Every year some 5,000 of the over 5 million women in the Czech Republic are diagnosed with breast cancer; for at least thirty percent of them the diagnosis comes too late. The second most common form of cancer in women is cervical cancer, with over 1,000 new cases annually. The Czech League Against Cancer has made this week Week Against Cancer - it's aiming to inform women of the importance of both prevention and early detection.

Czech doctors are ringing the alarm: the number of women alcoholics has doubled over the past ten years. In 2005 close to 3,000 women entered Czech clinics with an alcohol abuse problem and medical studies reveal that the increase of problem drinking in the female population is much sharper than that among males.

American singer Joan Baez was the surprise guest at the opening ceremony of the Forum 2000 international conference on Sunday night. She flew to Prague to personally congratulate the conference's initiator Vaclav Havel on his 70th birthday. Linda Mastalir was there and spoke to the former advisor to Vaclav Havel and Forum 2000 Foundation Executive Director Oldrich Cerny about the surprise performance of the famous singer, who Vaclav Havel once called a great inspiration and influence in Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution: