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Washington's efforts to overcome Russian hostility to a US missile defense shield in central Europe by inviting a Russian presence at the planned US sites in the Czech Republic and Poland has caused a storm of controversy in Prague. In view of the fact that Russian troops occupied the country for twenty years after the crushing of the Prague Spring reforms in 1968 - the idea that even a small number of them should now be invited back by the US government, for whatever reason - is not easy for Czechs to stomach.

Possibly the best-known living Czech writer, Milan Kundera, will receive the State Prize for Literature on Thursday for his famous work "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". The novel was first published in French in 1984, but the official Czech edition didn't appear in this country until last year, to great acclaim. However the 78-year-old writer, who emigrated to France in the 1970s, has what can best be described as a difficult relationship with his homeland, and will not attend Thursday's prize-giving ceremony. Rob Cameron spoke to literary

After a great deal of legal toing and froing, a march by neo-Nazis through Prague's historic Jewish Quarter now looks set to go ahead on November 10, the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938. But there is some resistance: the Prague Town Hall has renewed its efforts to block the demonstration, the Jewish Community is organizing a counter-event, and the Czech president no less has called for it to be stopped.

While the Czech economy is booming, many employers are complaining they just cannot find workers. Some large companies are increasingly turning to foreign workers, though that process is often held back by lengthy and complicated bureaucratic procedures. But now things are set to become easier - the Czech government has this week announced plans for a new "green card" system.

The United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Prague on Tuesday that the U.S. might consider delaying the activation of its proposed missile defence shield in Central Europe until Washington had "definitive proof" of a missile threat from Iran. Mr Gates was speaking in Prague after a meeting with the Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek to discuss the missile defence proposals, which have deeply angered Russia.

The Orloj, or Astronomical clock, on the Old Town Square is one of Prague's major tourist attractions. Every hour, the square fills with tourists who watch two small windows on the clock tower, waiting for the regular procession of apostles. Recently, however, the walls of the clock tower have grown increasingly damp and conservationists fear that dust from the moist plaster might cause mechanical problems for the ancient clockwork.

The Defence Ministry announced on Monday that the Czech Republic would withdraw most of its troops from Iraq next year, and at the same time the country's presence in Afghanistan would be substantially increased. The redeployments, which still have to be approved by parliament, will come into effect in July 2008.

Information Technology is already huge business in the Czech Republic - and it looks set to get even bigger. According to a recent study, some 700 new IT companies are expected to appear in the country over the next four years, potentially increasing jobs in the field by almost a third. There is only one slight problem: it seems that there aren't enough qualified Czech employees to make use of them.

Prague City Hall has seen a setback in its efforts to prevent a group of neo-Nazis from marching through Prague's Jewish Quarter on 10 November, the anniversary of the largest anti-Jewish pogrom in the Third Reich. The Prague Municipal Court has just cancelled a City Hall ban on the controversial planned march; however, officials are still hoping to block the far-right demonstration.

Great Czech inventions include everything from the contact lens to lager beer and now...the beer vending machine. Following a successful six-month trial, the world famous brewer Pilsner Urquell has just announced that it is introducing more of its new pivoautomaty - machines which dispense cans of beer, just like soft drinks machines elsewhere. With the network of machines expanding - potentially even abroad - the 'smart' beer vending machine, which reads customers' ID cards and only sells to the over 18s, could be coming soon to a station or stadium