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In the Communist era, it was illegal in this country not to have a place to live. All this has changed in the 16 years since the Velvet Revolution, however, and there are now an estimated 5000 homeless people on the streets of Prague. This has proved to be a difficult problem to deal with, and the homeless have become an increasingly visible presence on the streets of the Czech capital, often sleeping on trams and buses. One of the reasons for this is that no Prague municipality is willing to grant permission for a homeless shelter in its neighbourhood,

President Vaclav Klaus has made no attempt to hide his lack of enthusiasm for the new coalition government. In the months of political deadlock that preceded the appointment of the new administration, the president and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek clashed on a number of occasions over the president's reluctance to appoint a government supported by rebel MPs. This has led to speculation that support for the president within his own party may have suffered as a result. Some analysts even say this could have an impact on his re-election next

Rolling hills and coniferous forests are what you would call typical Czech landscape, but with the climatic changes affecting central Europe that may be about to change. In the wake of devastating gale-force winds, environmental experts are advising forest owners to think about mixed forests instead.

The number of people infected with the HIV virus in the Czech Republic increased significantly last year. According to the National Reference Laboratory for AIDS, 2006 saw the highest number of new cases since 1985. Of the 93 newly registered patients last year, ten had full blown AIDS. The latest figures suggest that a total of 920 people in the Czech Republic have HIV or AIDS, of whom just about one half - 464 - live in Prague.

This week has been a good one for Czech anti-smoking campaigners. On Tuesday the High Court in Brno supported a lawsuit taken by one tenant in an apartment building to ban his neighbours from smoking on the stairwells and corridors. It is a ruling that has for the first time backed the right of non-smokers to prevent people lighting up in their environment. Now, a proposed new law is to come before parliament, which aims to make it harder to smoke in public places.

Yesterday we reported on a shortage of tone wood which has for centuries been harvested in South Bohemia to make pianos that even Mozart himself played in Vienna. As a matter of fact, the Czech Museum of Music owns a piano which Mozart played in Prague, and the instrument is now on display in the Czech capital.

The city of Brno has relented. Brno's city council yesterday approved a plan to return the Villa Tugendhat, a UNESCO landmark, to the children of the original owners. The path to giving back the historic villa, however, won't be so simple.

In 2002, the Prague district of Karlin was one of the worst-affected by flooding on the Vltava river. Restoration of damaged buildings continues to this day, but Prague planners see a bright future for the area, including parks, new office and residential buildings, and two new islands.

The deep forests of the Sumava Mountains in South Bohemia used to abound in spruce trees whose wood was of such high quality that it was used for the production of musical instruments in workshops around Europe. But these legendary tone spruce trees are becoming increasingly rare owing to changes in the environment and forest management.

104 of the world's countries are now members of the International Criminal Court or ICC, the tribunal established in 2002 to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. They include 26 of the 27 members of the European Union, with one notable exception - the Czech Republic. The country signed up to the ICC in 1999, but parliament has yet to ratify it. On Monday four Czech NGOs released a statement criticising this fact, including the League of Human Rights. Radio Prague spoke to the League's Jan Kratochvil.