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On Monday, both Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda and Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Havel received visitors from the British Embassy, but on this occasion their guests were somewhat younger than you might perhaps expect from ambassadorial visitors. They were in fact the two 18 year old winners of the "Ambassador for a Day" essay writing competition, which was organised by the British Embassy in Prague to encourage young people in the Czech Republic to take an interest in European diplomacy. Yet despite their youth, the two winners had no less of a passion

The Czech press has called it the biggest pre-election event of the Social Democrats - the meeting of the Party of European Socialists (or PES) that was held in Prague on Friday. Co-hosted by its President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen of Denmark and the Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, the conference discussed three major issues: economic growth in Europe, a sustainable energy policy for the continent and peace in the Middle East.

Heavy snowfall paralyzed many parts of the Czech Republic on Sunday, closing Prague's Ruzyne Airport for over ten hours, restricting highways to one-lane traffic and cutting off mountain towns and villages. Many people claim this is the longest and harshest winter in half a century.

As the Second World War came to an end in 1945, numerous atrocities were committed in towns across Czechoslovakia, as the Czech people rose up against Nazi occupation. Investigations into the Nazi massacre which occurred in the final days of the war in Leskovice have revealed that those responsible for several of these crimes are still living in Germany today. Now, police have made a number of discoveries about another such slaughter in Velke Mezirici, which have brought detectives closer than ever before to finding out the truth about

When you think of sport in the Czech Republic, the first that come to mind are the winter variety, with ice hockey most popular among Czechs during the cold season. But once the snow has melted, we find other sports coming to the forefront. One of these is motor sport, something that is rapidly gaining popularity here. As the biking season gets underway, Thursday saw the opening of the 10th Motocykl international motorcycle and accessories exhibition, and I went along to find out how this sport is really moving up a gear in the Czech Republic.

Body image and eating disorders -the bane of rich countries - have become a serious problem in the Czech Republic in the last few years. More and more teenage girls starve themselves almost to death in the hope of acquiring the ultra-skinny look of fashion-models while young men take steroids to try and build up rippling, lean muscles. According to statistics five percent of the population now suffers from some kind of eating disorder, but experts believe the number could be much, much higher.

The leaders of European socialist parties met in Prague on Friday for a conference hosted by the Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek to discuss, among other issues, the EU's Spring Summit and a stronger European energy policy. Before the event, Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek held separate meetings with some of the participants, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

This week - on March 12th - the Czech Republic will mark the 7th anniversary since the country joined NATO in 1999. Over that period the country's military has changed beyond recognition - investing in new technology, going fully professional, redefining its overall approach to warfare. Later this year, Czech soldiers will be able to serve on key foreign missions with greater impact than ever before.

Exactly a month ago the American documentary "Super Size Me" opened in Prague. On the same day, a volunteer started a similar experiment to the one the film's director, Morgan Spurlock, went through. Instead of eating McDonald's food for a month like Morgan Spurlock did, the Czech "human guinea pig" volunteered to eat typical Czech pub food for thirty days to see what effect it was going to have on his health. On Wednesday night he presented the results of his experiment in a Prague cinema - and they were quite surprising.

The Czech economy reported record growth last year - new figures released by the Czech Statistics Office show the economy growing by 6 percent, the highest figure in the country's history. It's good news for the government three months before the elections of course, but some analysts say it has less to do with government policy and more to do with the business cycle.