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Figures have been released this week showing that the number of foreigners residing in the Czech Republic legally has almost doubled in the past ten years. They now make up 2.3 percent of the country's population, but that number is still incomparably lower than that in other EU member states.

Football is known to its fans as 'the beautiful game', but in the Czech league things have been looking rather ugly to say the least in the last few months. In May the world of Czech football was rocked by its biggest corruption scandal ever, with several referees and club officials arrested over match-fixing allegations. Now, on the very eve of the new football season, the crisis has deepened.

Musician Petr Janda, who leads the legendary (and long-running) Czech rock band Olympic, has announced he is going to run for the Senate. He is by no means the first Czech show business personality to go into politics since the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

With the holiday season in full swing, demand for short-term employment is peaking. Students in particular hope that through these temporary jobs, or "brigady" in Czech, they will earn enough money to pay for a vacation. I found out more about this popular practice of temporary employment.

After over a month of talks the Czech Republic finally has a new government. Or rather a "new-old" government, featuring the same three parties that were in the last coalition: the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union. New prime minister Stanislav Gross has been saying that the government - which has a majority of just one - aims to do more than simply survive until the next elections in 2006. But how much can they really achieve? And what ever became of Mr Gross's promise to have more women in cabinet?

The city of Prague, as a popular tourist destination, attracts millions of people thanks to its rich cultural heritage, historical monuments, beautiful architecture and its romantic little streets and cafes. Although it is known as one of the "greenest" capitals in Europe, few people are aware that Prague includes some 4,900 hectares of forest land. Around half the land is owned by the city, which spends some 36 million crowns - 1.2 million Euros - a year on maintenance. For over a decade, it has also owned ten run down gamekeepers' lodges but

11 years after his death, the music of Frank Zappa returned to Prague on Tuesday night courtesy of the Grand Mothers, a band composed of 3 former members of his band The Mothers of Invention. Zappa's influence in the Czech Republic is legendary and his popularity persists to this day. Today we take a look at how this iconoclastic Baltimore native became what Vaclav Havel called "one of the Gods of the Czech underground."

The Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, appointed a new cabinet on Wednesday morning, thus ending a six-week political limbo in the Czech Republic. That followed the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla in June. The new Prime Minister, Stanislav Gross, had promised to put together a young and dynamic team, supposed to last until the next general election in 2006.

Imagine a proper sand beach with umbrellas and deck-chairs in the centre of Prague. Although this idea might seem a bit unusual, Prague indeed now has its first sand beach right on the banks of the Vltava River. You can find it in Prague's Smichov district right next to a famous railway bridge.

On Monday hundreds of Roma, including representatives of Czech Romani groups, visited the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, southern Poland to commemorate thousands of victims of the Roma Holocaust. The ceremony was held on the 60th anniversary of the darkest hour of the Roma Holocaust when, on the night of August 2-3, 3,000 Roma were sent to the gas chambers as the liberation forces drew nearer.