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The welfare of children in the world's most advanced states is the focus of an extensive report just released by the United Nations children's organisation UNICEF. It uses a wide range of factors from health, to poverty, to relations with family and peers to rate 21 countries; the Netherlands is judged to have the best child well-being, the UK the worst. The Czech Republic ranks 15th, though the news is certainly not all bad.

Enjoying a glass of chilled beer one would hardly think of the complex biochemical process that is beer production. The prime ingredients are malt, hops, water and also yeast which helps turn sugar into alcohol and also influences the flavour of the beer. There are many kinds of brewers' yeasts suitable for different types of fermentation. But few breweries can boast having used the same kind of yeast for over a century.

Exactly fifteen years ago, on February 13th 1992, the Czech Technical University in Prague hosted a momentous event. At a meeting with university computer science experts and representatives from the University of Linz, the RIPE network coordination centre, and the US National Science Foundation, Czechoslovakia was officially connected to the internet. Dita Asiedu spoke to Jan Gruntorad, who headed the Technical University's computer network department at the time, about this historic moment:

Recent days have seen a series of allegations of collaboration with the communist-era secret police. Less than 24 hours after the head of the Czech branch of Interpol was fired over his involvement with the StB, claims emerged that Jaromir Nohavica, one of the country's best loved singers, was an informer. Now - in the most serious case to date - former prime minister Josef Tosovsky has been accused of collaborating with the secret police.

If you have been to a Czech wedding any time in the last few decades, you are probably familiar with the classic format: the same bleak communist-era town hall with an uninterested official repeating the same old clichés, the same Wedding March, and even the exact same menu in a local restaurant afterwards. But just as so many other things have changed in Czech society in recent years, Czechs weddings, too, are becoming a whole different affair.

Over 20,000 East Germans escaped to freedom via the West German Embassy in Prague in mid-to-late 1989, as the communist edifice started to crumble after four long decades. Their exodus is now recalled in a new exhibition entitled "Cesta za svobodou" or "Journey to Freedom" at Prague's Police Museum.

Echoes of the cold war: that is how some observers characterised Russian President Vladimir Putin recent reaction to US plans to expand its missile defence system in Europe. At a conference in Munich Mr Putin attacked the idea of the missile defence system (which includes a proposed interceptor rocket base in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic), saying such a move could not go unanswered. But what kind of answer might we see?

In January 2008, to be in accordance with an EU directive on taxation on energies, the Czech government will implement the first of two phases of an environmental tax reform plan. The use of environmentally damaging forms of energy will be taxed in an effort to make individuals and companies more eco-friendly. Next year, coal prices will rise by an estimated ten percent. But with a significant number of Czechs - especially pensioners - using coal in their households, what are the economic and environmental implications of this move? Dita Asiedu

In 2008 Zdenek Macal will cease to be the Czech Philharmonic's Chief Conductor. For the first time in its history the orchestra will not assign this position to anyone else, as it has decided to keep looking for an ideal candidate. As a result, the incoming Principal Guest Conductor, Manfred Honeck will play a more important role than normal in terms of leaving his mark on the ensemble and influencing its sound.

For four years now, the Prague Daily Monitor has been gathering news in English about the Czech Republic on one useful website. It groups stories thematically, with headlines followed by links to a variety of sources, such as the Czech Press Agency and Radio Prague. But since Thursday the Prague Daily Monitor has a new form, including original content for the first time. I spoke to its publisher Bryn Perkins and asked him: what exactly is new?