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Czech president Vaclav Klaus, an economist by profession, is preparing to do battle with environmentalists. In his latest book called "Our Planet is Blue - Not Green", which is to be released shortly, the president challenges the conclusions reached by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change namely that climate change is caused by human activity. The president on Wednesday presented his views to students at the Prague School of Economics, where he argued that environmentalists were not only misleading society - they were actually a threat

Seventeen years after the fall of the Communist regime, the Czech Republic will soon take a major step towards coming to terms with its past. After three hours of heated debate on Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill establishing an institute that will gather material and analyse the country's totalitarian history - from the Nazi occupation in 1939 to the end of the Communist era five decades later.

To mark the upcoming 62nd anniversary of the end of WWII next week, a convoy of historic American vehicles has set off this week on a ride across West Bohemia, a region which was liberated by US troops led by General George S. Patton. For the third time the "Liberty Road Convoy" will commemorate the role of the Allies in the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the Nazis - a fact largely ignored by the communist authorities before 1989. The historic vehicles left Prague on Wednesday and set off on a two-day journey to arrive in Pilsen in time for

Last week the US company Gilead Sciences announced that - in cooperation with the Prague Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry - it had developed a new drug that might prove to be a breakthrough in the fight against cancer. The drug - labeled GS9219 - has shown fantastic results in the first phase of testing on animals. We called the head of the Czech research team professor Zdenek Havlas to find out more about this revolutionary discovery.

The Bata Canal is a man-made waterway that runs through South Moravia. Surrounded by numerous historical sites and a beautiful landscape, tens of thousands of tourists take a ride down the canal every year. But this year, it is expected to attract many more visitors as, for the first time in over a decade, they are able to travel into neighbouring Slovakia without facing a fine.

Just weeks after the opening of a Czech Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul, Czech staff have been involved in a serious violent incident. When a car carrying the country's most senior diplomat in Kabul came under fire, Czech personnel had no option but to retaliate. The dramatic incident left two Czechs injured and three rebels dead.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus ended a four-day trip to the Russian Federation on Sunday - the first ever official visit to Russia by a Czech head of state. Accompanied by an unusually large delegation of businessmen, Mr Klaus's chief aim was, he said, to boost bilateral relations, with special emphasis on economy. However, the meeting between President Klaus and Russian President Vladmir Putin was to a large extent dominated by the US project to install a tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

There are currently 22 centres around the world where visitors can learn about the Czech Republic's history, economy, and culture. These Czech Centres are funded by the Foreign Ministry with a mission to foster dialogue with the public abroad and promote the country as a modern and dynamic state. The centres meet their goal with the help of various projects, ranging from literature readings to theatre performances. The Czech Centres now have a new director - Jaroslav Kanturek - and we spoke to him about his plans for the future:

Svatopluk Benes, one of the country's leading actors in the interwar years of the First Republic, has died at the age of 89. He was one of the last remaining legends of the silver screen in the brief time when Czech cinematography enjoyed a period of Hollywood glamour.

The Czech government appeared to soften its approach to a new European constitution this week - provided the EU doesn't call it that. This week the cabinet - dominated by the staunchly anti-federalist Civic Democrats - approved a fresh negotiating strategy, which appears to be a departure from its previously uncompromising stance. But as Rob Cameron reports, just don't mention the 'C' word.