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With the coming Christmas break football fans will have a chance to reflect on the past season - both on the domestic scene and on the international level, and many will no doubt be pleased to note progress by Petr Cech - the country's No. 1 keeper who was seriously injured in October. Cech suffered a skull fracture after a collision with Stephen Hunt in a Reading-Chelsea match, an injury that left a shadow over the player's career. Originally, it was thought that Cech could be out for as much as year before returning to the pitch. Now, the news

It is a vicious circle: poor education -unemployment - bad housing. Despite efforts to integrate the Roma community into Czech society, the Roma still remain on the fringe of society, unable to break free of the constraints which pre-determine their place in life. A report by the Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia says more effort needs to be undertaken across Europe to resolve this problem.

The Czech foreign minister Alexandr Vondra appeared to confirm this week what defence analysts have been speculating upon for some time: if the United States decides to place part of its missile defence system in Europe, the Czech Republic will almost certainly be asked to host a radar and tracking station, not a full-blown missile base. However there are still many hurdles to be overcome before work on such a facility can begin.

On Tuesday U.S. President George W. Bush announced plans to modify his country's visa waiver program that would raise the number of countries whose citizens can enter the United States without a visa. This move could affect the Czech Republic, allowing its citizens to travel to the U.S. on business or pleasure for 90 days without going through the arduous process of obtaining a visa. Emily Udell has the report.

Silesia, a Pearl in the Bohemian Crown - is a new exhibition that is currently underway in Prague. As Dita Asiedu reports, paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints illustrate the artistic relations among Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia from the 14th to the 18th century:

The Czech Republic has blocked an EU Commission proposal that would have seen a 4.5 percent hike on taxes on alcohol including beer. That is something that would no doubt have a major impact on the Czech Republic as a major producer and consumer: here, beer is considered a national product. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Vlastimil Tlusty indicated the decision to veto wasn't just about raising taxes alone but overall fairness since, for example, wine producers' products are largely exempt. He said that the proposed hike left beer brewers at a

At the weekend a second attempt to form a new government was made all the more complicated; it was revealed that an advisor to Civic Democrat Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, had intimated the party were preparing to dupe the Social Democrats. The advisor, Marek Dalik, later denied this. However, his words had been secretly recorded by newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes and were broadcast on TV. Despite this evidence, the prime minister is standing by his advisor. The question now is: what further impact will there be?

A special prize was presented to Jiri Novak on Saturday, at the Golden Canary awards for Czech tennis player of the year. The award was in recognition of all that Novak achieved during a long professional career, which recently came to an end when he played his last tournament, the Swiss Indoors in Basle.

A district court in the Moravian town of Breclav has passed an unprecedented verdict. It sent a mother and father to prison for allowing their three children to skive off school. But perhaps it will not be the last such court ruling, as the case of this Breclav family is not an isolated one.

After what initially appeared to be a breakthrough in government negotiations last week, politicians in the Czech Republic are back at square one. On Sunday the Social Democrats led by Jiri Paroubek rejected a proposal by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to join a four-party coalition that would have run the country until 2008. The party rejected the deal on the grounds that a year-an-a-half or so in office was simply too short. Trust, or lack of it, may also have played a part, after it came to light that a close aide to the prime minister had made