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It all started with a can of soup. Two years ago a Czech tourist trekking through the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile decided to take a break for lunch and warm a can of soup on a camp-fire. The result was a four-day blaze that destroyed over 11,000 hectares of Chile's national park. Experts said it would take more than 7 million US dollars and over a decade to repair the damage.

A popular senator and local mayor from the north Moravian city of Ostrava is fighting accusations of racism, following the release on Tuesday of a recording of a local housing committee meeting. Senator Liana Janackova is apparently heard making derogatory and threatening remarks about Romanies in her ward, remarks which she says have been taken out of context.

Sculptor Cestmir Suska has long been more popular on the other side of the Atlantic than here in his native Prague. But, with a current exhibition in the Czech Museum of Fine Arts, and one of his famous, beer-tank sculptures firmly fixed in Liberec town square, all of this could be about to change. Rosie Johnston has the story.

Jiri Dienstbier has emerged as the latest "anti-Klaus" candidate for next year's presidential elections. The former dissident and first post-communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia has just confirmed he is willing to stand. His backers, including some leading Social Democrats, would like to see the incumbent Vaclav Klaus replaced at all costs and hope Mr Dienstbier, aged 70, could unite opposition. Talking over the phone to Jiri Dienstbier, who is attending a conference in San Sebastian, I asked him what his motivation was to run for

The gorillas at Prague Zoo were the focus of media attention around the world a couple of years ago, when they were constantly monitored on the internet, in a parody of reality TV shows like Big Brother. Today Prague Zoo's gorillas remain very popular with the Czech public. However, it seems not everyone likes them - on Tuesday apples studded with nails were found in their enclosure, and officials say the apes could have suffered serious injury.

In recent months, there have been increasingly frequent reports of Czechs trying to pass themselves off as veterans of the Second World War. And real veterans are far from impressed - groups such as the Czech Freedom Fighters' Assocation have spoken out against such behaviour, and even raised the question of whether such a practice should be outlawed. Rosie Johnston has the story:

Experts from UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting in New Zealand last week, suggested Prague should reconsider the planned construction of several new skyscrapers in the district of Pankrac. The Committee said plans should respect the skyline of Prague's historic centre, which was one of the main reasons Prague was included on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

The new head of the Czech police force has unveiled measures to tackle the severe shortage of officers, changing the admission requirements to place less emphasis on the applicant's physical fitness. The police hope this will win back some of the thousands of hopeful applicants who are turned away each year because they fail the physical.

The 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival came to a close on Saturday night with a glitzy ceremony at the town's Thermal hotel. The festival's prize the Crystal Globe was presented to a number of directors and actors - and to US star Danny DeVito, who got an award for outstanding contribution to world cinema.

The case of the fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir has taken a new course after a court in Johannesburg, South Africa, ruled on Friday that Mr Krejcir be released on bail of over three million Czech crowns. He is to remain in South Africa until he returns to the court in August.