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On Friday September 14th Czechs marked the 70th anniversary of the death of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk - the first and best-loved president in the country's history, fondly referred to as "the father of the nation". The man who stood at the cradle of Czechoslovakia and who taught Czechs and Slovaks the principles of freedom and democracy still commands enormous respect. During his life-time Masaryk was a cult figure. Seventy years after his death Czechs say they still have a lot to learn from him.

Milena Vicenova, former agriculture minister, was been appointed by the Czech government on Wednesday to become the new Czech ambassador to EU. She will replace current ambassador Jan Kohout at the beginning of 2008, a year before the Czech Republic will assume the presidency.

Even before the first whistle in Wednesday evening's football Euro qualifier between the Czech Republic and Ireland, the game was being described as autumn's big event. There was no question that the Czechs - who had been suffering from poor form and had come under heaps of criticism of late - needed to win against Ireland to keep them in qualifying contention. They succeeded: on the night the Czechs played their most inspired game in months, just edging their opponents.

Czech president Vaclav Klaus has become the face of a media campaign questioning the impact of global warming. The campaign is run by the free-market think-tank Heartland Institute. It features pictures of Vaclav Klaus and former US vice-president Al Gore under the headline "Global Warming Is No Crisis". It also draws attention to Mr Klaus' speech that is to take place in two week's time at the UN conference on global warming. I spoke to Tom Swiss of the Heartland Institute and started by asking about the campaign's aim.

Ministers of the Israeli government will be using Skodas and Audis in the coming years, after an importer of these cars won a government tender. But the issue of German cars to be driven by government officials in Israel has provoked negative reactions by some Israeli politicians who claim this might hurt the feelings of Holocaust survivors.

Wednesday has been called "do or die" for the Czech national football squad if the team hopes to compete at Euro 2008 next year in Austria and Switzerland. To secure a tighter hold on the crucial second spot in Group D the Czechs would ideally need to win Wednesday night against visitors Ireland, but many pundits are sceptical that will happen.

The Dvorak hall of Prague's Rudolfinum will open its doors on Wednesday for the first concert of this year's international music festival 'Prague Autumn'. Taking place under the patronage of Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the Ministry of Culture, the prestigious annual festival will consist of a series of twenty-two concerts, and features an international lineup of performers.

The Czech Republic saw a record number of vacancies on the job market in August - Labour Offices around the country were advertising more than 130,000 jobs last month, 10,000 more than the previous month. But what sounds like great news for the Czech economy is actually causing headaches for some firms.

Who will be the country's next president? With elections due in February of next year the faces of possible rivals are filling front pages. Potential candidates include a former foreign minister, an economist and an academic. But do any of them really stand a chance against the incumbent president, Vaclav Klaus, who is running for re-election?

Not long ago Jiri Sulc was unknown in Czech literary circles, but those days appear to be over. The former member of Czech counter-intelligence, is making a name for himself as an up-and-coming author. His first novel "Dva Proti Risiquot; (Two Against the Reich) was published after Mr Sulc won a prestigious Czech literary prize, and already his novel has gotten rave reviews. His story is set during the Second World War, focusing on the assassination of Nazi governor and "Hangman of Bohemia" Reinhard Heydrich. At the time Czechoslovak paratroopers