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September is a time of wine harvest festivities around the country. Typically, they take place in the traditional winegrowing regions of south Moravia and the Melnik district north of Prague. But the Czech capital itself boasts five vineyards, some dating back as early as the 12th century. The vineyard closest to the city centre, Grebovka, held celebrations this past weekend and Radio Prague was there.

The number of Vietnamese applicants for Czech visas has more than tripled since 2000; in fact, more than 8,000 Vietnamese citizens applied for both long- and short-term visas for the Czech Republic last year. However, the Czech embassy in Vietnam has come under criticism. Critics say the consular service at the Czech Embassy in Hanoi is not coping with the large numbers of visa applicants; allegations that staff at the embassy are corrupt have been refuted.

The Czech art market has been thriving for the past few years and Czech auction houses have witnessed number of record sales. This weekend a Cubist painting "Girl in Pink" by the renowned twentieth-century artist Josef Capek was sold to an anonymous bidder for 12 million crowns (about 615,000 USD). It is the second highest sum paid for a painting in the Czech Republic. The Czech auction record for a work by Czech painter was set earlier this year by Frantisek Kupka's "Abstract Composition".

Heads of Czech cultural centres from all over the world gathered this week in Prague for an annual meeting to discuss their strategies for the upcoming months. I spoke to Monika Koblerova, who is in charge of the Czech Centre in New York, about the highlights of this cultural season, and started by asking about the history of the Czech Centre in the US.

Some curious and rather unfortunate news emerged from Great Britain this week - the Czech Republic has been placed on a list of "risk countries" by Her Majesty's Customs, because of the amount of illegal contraband arriving in Czech letters and parcels. The upshot is that all Czech mail to Britain is now being screened, and customers are experiencing delays.

The presidents of the Visegrad Group - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic meet regularly to discuss outstanding issues in bilateral relations, European affairs and security matters. This week their two-day summit took them to Keszthely Castle at Lake Balaton in Hungary.

The Czech coalition government on Wednesday unanimously approved the draft budget for 2008. With a projected deficit of 70.8 billion crowns the draft budget would meet one of the basic EU criteria for adopting the euro - a deficit below 3 percent of the GDP. The governing parties say getting there wasn't easy but not everyone is cheering.

"The Dream Continues" is how the Czech daily Sport titled Wednesday night's triumph, referring to football side Slavia's win in the team's first ever Champions League match. Slavia downed Steaua Bucharest 2:1 in the group stage game held at Prague's Evzen Rosicky stadium, earning their first three points.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Princess Anne is to make an official visit to the Czech Republic. Her itinerary, which is still in its preparatory stages, will include the annual steeplechase at Pardubice, east Bohemia, as well as other events designed to strengthen cultural and educational links between the Czech Republic and Great Britain. The visit is scheduled to take place in October, and continues a long tradition of visits by British royals and statesmen to Bohemia.

Most general practitioners in the Czech Republic kept their surgeries closed on Wednesday as doctors went on strike to make sure their voices are heard. At the moment Czech GPs are negotiating next year's payments they receive from health insurance companies for treating individual patients.