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As this programme was being recorded the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor held in Libya were still waiting to hear whether their death sentences would be commuted. However among the feverish speculation that a compromise has been reached, reports have emerged that four European countries - including the Czech Republic - were playing a leading role in facilitating the deal.

Over a hundred students from medical schools all over the world are in the Czech capital at the moment; they're here to attend Prague Selective, a broad study programme which is now in its tenth year. The course is organised by Dr. Martin Stransky, who himself studied medicine in the US and runs a health care clinic in Prague.

Czechs planning to travel around Europe next year will have one thing less to worry about - they will be able to leave their passports at home. The long awaited accession to the Schengen Agreement, which guarantees the citizens of all member countries unrestricted travel, will happen in the first moments of New Year's Day 2008.

The Council of Europe has raised serious concerns about the use of castration for sex offenders in the Czech Republic, following a visit by the Council's experts to a number of psychiatric facilities. The Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture has called for greater safeguards to prevent the treatment being wrongly applied.

Crocodiles are no longer something you need to go to the zoo to see here in the Czech Republic. Several Czech farmers have started to rear these animals, along with some less tropical, but equally untraditional, species like snails. Rosie Johnston has the story on all these creatures great and small...

A heat wave coming all the way from Africa arrived in the Czech Republic at the weekend, with Prague seeing a new record temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius on Sunday. But Czechs are now bracing themselves for even hotter weather: forecasters say Monday could be the hottest day ever recorded in this country, with temperatures of up to 39 degrees Celsius expected.

Eagle-eyed film-goers will have noticed the medieval streets and facades of Prague and other Czech towns cropping up in Hollywood blockbusters such as Mission Impossible and Casino Royale. Experienced and highly-qualified Czech crews as well as Prague's renowned Barrandov studios have proved a winning formula for Hollywood over the last decade, but now, the Czech film production business is sounding the alarm. In 2003, they say, foreign filmmakers spent more than five billion crowns in the Czech Republic. Last year, that figure had fallen to 1.4

Close to fifty Czech cultural figures, scientists and musicians on Thursday signed a petition asking President Vaclav Klaus and the chairmen of both houses of Parliament to support their demand for a referendum to be held on whether the Czech Republic should host a US radar base on its territory. Their public appeal has pleased the Social Democrats and Communists, who are also pushing for a referendum, but the Czech government maintains that questions of defense are not a matter to be decided by the public.

On this day, July 13, lovers of fine art are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the birth of Vaclav, or Wenceslaus, Hollar, one of the most famous Czech and European engravers and draftsmen of his time. The year 2007 has actually seen two important anniversaries: in March it was exactly 330 years since the great artist's death.

The rainy days of July seem to be full of sunshine for the Social Democrats, the largest opposition party in the Czech parliament. A recent series of polls suggests that for the first time since last year's elections, Social Democrats now have more public support than their main rival - the governing right-wing Civic Democrats. But that's not all the good news for the Jiri Paroubek's party - an investigation into a corruption scandal linked to the Social Democrats has just been dropped.