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When Czechs began leaving the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the middle of the last century, many of them crossed the East River to Queens, the Astoria neighbourhood in particular. Today you will still find some Czech-owned businesses in that part of New York, among them the Zlata Praha (Golden Prague) restaurant. That said, the couple who own it, the Suchaneks, insist it’s a Czech and Slovak establishment. I spoke to George Suchanek at Zlata Praha.

Almost two years ago the government introduced new legislation aimed at improving safety on Czech roads. A new points system and increased police vigilance at first made a positive impact on fatality numbers, but since then the number of accidents and related deaths has once again risen. All too often, too many drivers fail to obey the rules of the road. Worse, one daily has reported - citing transport ministry numbers - thousands of motorists in the country are failing to respect even the most basic of tenets: obtaining a driver’s license before

Prague’s Foreign Ministry played host to a conference on missile defence on Monday, with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer among the guest speakers. The conference was organised to look at what lies ahead for plans to build a U.S. radar tracking facility on Czech soil after NATO gave the project a cautious endorsement at its recent summit in Bucharest.

On May 5 1945, Czech Radio or Český Rozhlas formally turned against the Nazi German government occupying the country and called on protesters to openly oppose Nazi rule. Today marks the 63rd anniversary of this incident, which ultimately led to the liberation of the Czech lands from Nazi rule.

Czech wine producers returned from an international competition in Bordeaux recently with an impressive haul of awards. Facing competition from 47 other wine-growing countries around the world, they took six gold medals at the prestigious Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. I spoke to one of the Czech winners from the event.

April 30 is ‘Čarodějnice’ in the Czech Republic, the day that winter is ceremonially brought to an end. How? By the burning of rag and straw witches on bonfires around the country. The festival offers Czechs the chance to eat, drink and be merry around a roaring fire, and for some, there’s even the chance to dress up.

Last year a design for the new national library by architect Jan Kaplický promised to bring an unprecedented architectural edge to the centre of Prague. But almost from day one, the project has been dogged by controversy. After initial support from the city’s mayor, the gelatinous-like structure nicknamed the Blob or the Octopus, to be situated on Prague’s Letná Plain, drew increasing criticism, including sharp words by Václav Klaus. The project was also challenged by architects who argued the project failed to respect prerequisites of the original

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek’s centre-right government survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday. The motion from the opposition Social Democrats won only 98 votes out of the overall 199 deputies present in the 200-member lower house. The three party coalition, which has been dogged by corruption scandals and weakened by internal strife once again showed that at times of crises it stands united.

Jaroslav Hašek, the author of the world renowned book, The Good Soldier Švejk was born 125 years ago today. Celebrations across the country, and in particular in the town where Hašek is buried, have often taken an unusual form:

Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day victims - a day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished during the Second World War - was marked in many parts of the Czech Republic - in synagogues, at public gatherings and in private, by families whose lives were directly affected by the Holocaust. Anyone passing through Prague’s Náměstí Míru on Wednesday could stop to take part in a public reading of the names of Holocaust victims. The event was organised by the Terezín Initiative Institute, the Czech Union of Jewish Youth