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The Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan on a visit of the Czech Republic on Tuesday met several officials, among others Prime Minister Stanislav Gross, Prague Mayor Pavel Bem and Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda. Since July 2003 when the two ministers last met, they've had quite a few issues to talk about. Both countries have joined the European Union, but there are also other important cooperation issues. During Tuesday's meeting, the two foreign ministers signed a document enabling better cooperation in emergency situations, such as a terrorist

After Charles Taylor, accused of gun-running, war crimes and leading an army of child soldiers, was forced to resign as president of Liberia last year, the world media paid little attention to the West African country. Its citizens have yet to recover from years of civil war, social unrest, and poverty. A Prague-based organisation now hopes to come to their aid.

It has been described as the biggest political scandal in years: two men connected with the opposition Civic Democrats charged with corruption after a coalition MP said they tried to bribe him to bring down the government. But now the case has been turned on its head, with a state attorney describing the arrests as unlawful, and the MP in question as untrustworthy.

The circus in the Czech Republic has a long tradition. Circus families can count back generations of circus performers on their family trees. But the circus has fallen on hard financial times in recent years. Despite the difficulties, the country's best-known circuses do not seem ready to take down their tents just yet.

Up to now cigarettes in the Czech Republic have been among the cheapest in the European Union. But all this is about to change. The government has announced plans to raise consumer taxes on cigarettes over the next three years, making it an increasingly expensive habit.

The annual awards ceremony for the best organic product of the year was held in Prague on Friday. The awards were presented in a recently opened organic restaurant, which is still something of a novelty in the Czech Republic. The event aims to promote the organic food industry, which is still in its infancy in this country.

People representing various Czech non-profit organisations gathered in the Valdstejn Palace in Prague at the end of last week to discuss a document that has been causing a stir throughout Europe in recent months - the draft European Constitution. They were interested in the document's relevance to the non-profit sector and the development of a civil society.

A referendum took place over the weekend in Brno, the Czech Republic's second largest city. It was to decide if the city's main train station should be moved from its current location in the center of the city. As Martin Hrobsky reports, the vote - that was meant to get people involved in the democratic process - failed to catch the attention of most of the city's inhabitants.

It was meant to take TV viewers by storm - and it did just that. The first Czech- made reality show exploded into a porn scandal before the eyes of millions of TV viewers, as three contestants in the "Million Dollar Couple" dating game turned out to be porn actresses.

It has been more than 100 days since Social Democrat Stanislav Gross was named prime minister, after an appalling showing by the Social Democrats in June's European elections led his predecessor, Vladimir Spidla to resign. By many accounts the new prime minister has consolidated his position rather well: not only did he manage to quell political differences within his own party that had threatened to tear the Social Democrats apart, but he has also launched what many - even grudging critics - see as a highly effective campaign aimed at stemming