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In the Prague street Albertov a peaceful march began fifteen years ago on 17th November 1989. It was to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Jan Opletal, the Czech student killed by the Nazis in 1939. The event marked the beginning of the Velvet Revolution, as the march was suppressed brutally by police when it reached National Avenue in the heart of the city. On Wednesday, exactly fifteen years later, another march took place. This time it was staged by students to protest against the continued influence of the Communist Party in the Czech

There is much to be done. That was the unanimous verdict of academics, politicians and former dissidents who met Wednesday to reflect on the legacy of the Velvet Revolution. But precisely what work remains for the Czech Republic's continuing democratization was a matter for debate.

On the morning of November 17th 1989 no one would have ever believed that the events of that day would lead to the collapse of forty years of Communist rule. A quiet and peaceful student march was violently cracked down by police. Some 170 students were injured, triggering a wave of nationwide strikes and protests. Just weeks later, the Communist regime fell. But few people are aware that the student march was held to commemorate events fifty years earlier. On October 28th, 1939, a student demonstration protesting at the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia

There are an unprecedented number of special events taking place this November 17th, a state holiday which marks the anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution. They include a service in memory of Jan Opletal, an anti-Communist reenactment of the 1989 demonstration quelled by riot police on Narodni Street and a big concert entitled Narodni Otherwise.

It has been six months since the Czech Republic and nine other states, most of them in Central and Eastern Europe, entered the European Union. But have these new bonds brought the countries of Central Europe closer together? At the end of last week Prague hosted a conference "Without Borders" to look at how partnership is working and could be improved between the countries of the region. Maida Agovic has this report.

The Czech football team are playing their last game of the year on Wednesday, a World Cup qualifier against Macedonia in Skopje. One of the stars of the team is Milan Baros, who at the weekend scored his first ever hat-trick; the last of the Liverpool striker's goals was a penalty in the dying seconds of the game, with the score at 2:2. Before the Euro 2004 star left for Macedonia, I asked Baros if he'd felt the pressure as he stepped up to the penalty spot.

It was the result the ruling Social Democrats had feared the most: in the second round of elections to a third of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, they were stranded high and dry failing to win a single seat, while rivals, the right-of-centre Civic Democrats romped to victory. The opposition Civic Democrats now hold well over a third of the Senate, with enough clout to make it tough for the government to push through legislation. Following regional elections last week the results mark a 2nd major political defeat for Prime Minister Stanislav

On Friday the National Theatre in Prague hosted the premiere of a new production of probably the best known Czech opera, The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana. But what was meant to be a prestigious staging met with disapproval on the part of the audience and the actors were even booed at one point.

The playwright and former president and dissident Vaclav Havel is to have his own library. On Friday the project was presented to the press, and its director Vaclav Bartuska said it was in the American tradition of libraries devoted to the work of former US presidents. Given Vaclav Havel's key role both as a dissident and then as the longest-serving head-of-state in the years after the fall of communism, the library promises to be a mine of information. David Vaughan reports.

Almost exactly six months ago, the Czech Republic and seven other former Communist countries joined the European Union. With Romania and Bulgaria also knocking on the doors of the EU, further east electoral controversies have emerged in Belarus and Ukraine. As the Czech Republic and other countries go west, many say a gap has emerged between former eastern bloc allies and the EU, and some are asking how the gap can be bridged.