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The United States ambassador to Prague John Shattuck advised the Czech Culture Minister Pavel Dostal on Monday that unless Jewish demands are respected in the dispute over Prague's medieval Jewish cemetery, the case could have unfavorable political and economic consequences for the Czech Republic. has the story.

Following the success of their play Bouda-La Barraque in Belgium and in France, Petr and Matej Forman - the twin sons of the famous film director Milos Forman - have undertaken a new challenge. They've created a performance on a converted barge which they call a 'ship-theater', moored on the banks of the River Vltava. The play - Purple Sails - is based on a story by the Russian writer Alexander Grin. During a rather noisy on-board rehearsal, , Radio Prague's spoke to Matej Forman and began by asking him where the idea of a floating theatre had come from.

Delegates from Roma communities all over the world have come together in Prague for the 5th International Roma Congress, which opened in the Czech capital on Tuesday. Top of the agenda will be the plight of the Roma population in Kosovo, which have in recent years been targetted for discrimination by both the ethnic Albanians and the Serb community. Radio Prague's went along to the opening ceremony.

What skeletons do the former Eastern Bloc countries have in their cupboards? That's a question to which the European Union wants to know the answers. The Union's Commissioner for enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, has announced that the Commission wants to take a closer look at the former communist applicant countries, to find out to what extent former prominent communists have control over their economies. As one of the frontrunners to join the Union, this has also given the Czech Republic some food for thought. reports.

Parliament has approved a law making it compulsory for genetically modified foods to be labeled. If the Senate approves the law and President Havel signs it, Czechs will be able to tell whether they are buying genetically modified foods as of January 1, 2001, which isn't very far away since the whole issue still hasn't been dealt with to such a degree as in many other parts of the world. has been finding out how the general public and the authorities are getting ready for the new regulations.

On Friday two covered caravans drawn by horses and carrying 30 young Romanies started a three-day journey leading from the town of Kladruby in eastern Bohemia to the village of Brezova. The journey was designed to simulate the nomadic way of life that many Roma people lived until the not-so-distant past. has this report:

A cloud of toxic chlorine gas hung over several villages north of Prague at the weekend following a leak at the nearby Spolana chemical factory on Friday. 12 firemen were injured after breathing the chlorine, and they had to seek treatment in hospital. None of the local population was hurt in the incident, but it wasn't the first leak at Spolana. is here with details of the accident.

Now the following story is certain to have Vladimir Ilych Lenin turning revolutions in his mausoleum in Red Square. The leader of the Great October Revolution is be the star attraction of an online auction this month, as Sotheby's opens bids for a 3-metre statue of the former Soviet leader which once gazed down on the Czech town of Sokolov. has more.

Newly-declassified documents released by Britain's Public Record Office on Thursday contained some fascinating revelations. According to a letter dated March 19, 1969, Britain and the United States were seriously discussing plans for a military conflict with the Soviet Union, in the wake of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. And as reports, London and Washington believed the NATO alliance could have collapsed if Soviet influence had been allowed to extend further into Europe. His report begins with a Czechoslovak Radio announcement from

The Czech Ministry of Environment has given the go-ahead for the completion of a motorway from Prague to Dresden. The motorway is almost complete but for a short section running through the Ceske Stredohori highlands - a protected range of hills in North Bohemia. The last obstacle to the completion of a north-south trans-European route seems to have been removed. reports.