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2009 is a year of big visits for the Czech Republic. After receiving the new American president Barack Obama in April, the country is now preparing for another extremely important visitor: His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who will be making several stops in the country over three days in September.

We’ve heard about the diplomatic fallout from Canada’s decision to reintroduce visas for Czechs, but what about the effect it’s having on Czech tourists – 30,000 of whom visit the country each year? Well, it’s inconvenient to say the least; hundreds of Czech travellers are now heading for Vienna – the nearest place they can obtain a Canadian visa at short notice.

Monday was a surprisingly busy day for Czech diplomats focusing simultaneously on one of the world’s largest countries, Canada, and on one of the smallest: Liechtenstein. The microstate of 35,000 people has been the aggrieved party in one of the Czech Republic’s main international disputes, and only now have the two countries decided to reopen regular relations after a 60-year diplomatic row. Christian Falvey explains what’s at the centre of the row.

The Czech Republic has hit back at Canada’s reintroduction of visas on its citizens within hours of the move being announced by Ottawa. In reply, Prague has imposed visas on Canadian diplomats and is now seeking tougher measures from Brussels and EU states. The incident marks a sudden souring in normally friendly relations.

The recent flash floods in the Czech Republic have focussed attention on how quiet streams could be transformed so rapidly into raging torrents causing destruction and taking lives. Environmental groups are putting the blame on manmade changes to rivers and the landscape. But while the Ministry of Environment is mapping out the risks, landscape changes to cushion the risks still seem a long way off.

The 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which has just come to an end in the west Bohemian spa town, will surely go down as one of the best in recent years. Many believe that there was an improvement in the standard of films in competition, while the glitter factor was also high, with Hollywood stars like John Malkovich and Antonio Banderas gracing Karlovy Vary’s red carpet.

The government’s car scrapping incentive scheme had been described as the “flagship” of the recently approved economic stimulus package, but President Václav Klaus believes it’s the scheme itself that should be scrapped. On Thursday he vetoed the stimulus package, arguing that measures such as providing people with incentives to buy new cars discriminates against other sectors of the economy.

This Sunday sees the start of the fourth Bohemia Jazz Fest, which brings free jazz concerts, and some of the world’s biggest names in contemporary jazz, to Prague and the Czech provinces. On the eve of the festival, here’s a preview of what to expect:

It is one of nature’s marvels – a gate of sandstone created through millions of years of erosion. The Pravčice Gate near the Czech-Saxony border stands on the edge of a region of wondrous sandstone formations known as Bohemian Switzerland. It is one of 77 sites to get into the semi-finals of the New7Wonders, an international contest organized by a Swiss foundation which aims to support man-made and natural heritage sites

Each year, as the Karlovy Vary Film Festival gets underway, the West Bohemian spa town becomes the Czech Republic’s undisputed cultural capital for a week. The epicentres are the cinemas of course, with more than 200 films from around the world. But there are all kinds of goings on that that keep the town abuzz from early morn to early morn for eight long days. Christian Falvey is in Karlovy Vary, trying to keep up with it all.