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The head of the U.S. Missile Defence Agency was in Brussels this week to argue the case for placing part of its missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Lieutenant General Henry Obering said the U.S. would press ahead with the plan, with or without the approval of America's NATO allies. The Czech government has said yes in theory to hosting a radar station about 70 km from Prague, and the two sides are about to embark on detailed talks on what is becoming a highly divisive issue. We spoke to U.S. ambassador Richard Graber.

In the Czech Republic there is no tradition of wearing uniforms in school. But now, in something of a first, students at a private high school in Dubi, north Bohemia, have held a school referendum on whether or not to introduce school uniforms. The reasons "why" were several.

Ask any tourist about his impressions of Prague and you will get answers like beautiful architecture, beautiful women, great beer, and...expensive taxis. City Hall has been fighting a seemingly endless battle to stop taxi drivers from overcharging. But now the dispute between the drivers and the authorities has reached an entirely new level and one man has even ended up in hospital.

Noise pollution plagues millions of people across Europe. An effort to address the problem on European scale has now brought action here in the Czech Republic where an estimated 40 percent of big city dwellers are said to suffer from the problem.

Prague's Jara Cimrman Theatre, named after a popular fictitious character, is about to become involved in an unusual undertaking. It has put together a group of actors and professional climbers who will visit Russia's Altay Mountains this summer. When they get there they plan to christen a hitherto name-less peak - after Jara Cimrman.

The Social Democrats, the second biggest party in the country, may be facing extinction. A lawyer who represented them in court seven years ago says he is owed billions of crowns and is willing to take legal action against the party. But if the Social Democrats had to pay the sum, which amounts to over 880 million US dollars, they would be forced to file for bankruptcy. Dita Asiedu reports:

Cinemagoers packed Prague's Lucerna and Svetozor cinemas on Wednesday for the launch of the One World festival of human rights documentary films. The festival - run by the Czech NGO People in Need - is now in its ninth year, and has grown over the years into a major fixture on the Czech cultural calendar.

Balancing one's private life and career is a problem faced by people in many parts of the world today. Lifestyles here in the Czech Republic have changed hugely in the last two decades - with work-life balance a new concept to many. So how are Czechs doing when it comes to balancing the two?

Prague's metro system is often praised by visitors to the city; it is fast, reliable and - with three intersecting lines - unusually easy to navigate. Opened in May 1974, the capital's underground now carries around a million and a half passengers a day. It has been extended several times in recent years - but changes planned for the next half decade or so should be the most radical yet.

There was a huge development in a scandal surrounding a large military contract on Tuesday, when Swedish TV broadcast secretly made recordings of former Czech foreign minister Jan Kavan. He says that Czech politicians took bribes linked to a deal to purchase Gripen supersonic jets from the British-Swedish consortium BAE Systems/Saab. In the end the Czech Republic leased rather than bought the planes, but the allegations remain. And suspicions of corruption have been fanned by Mr Kavan's implication that a Czech police investigation could be