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A former army barracks on Prague's Namesti Republiky square is going to be the site of another shopping and office complex in the centre of the city. But the project has been delayed by the discovery there of major archeological treasures - in fact it is the biggest archeological dig in the country's history.

Thursday was a state holiday in the Czech Republic on which Czechs celebrated "independence day" - the 86th anniversary of the birth of Czechoslovakia.For twenty one Czechs the occasion was very special indeed. They received high state distinctions from President Klaus in a ceremony which was broadcast live on national television.

The first recorded name for Bohemia has its roots in the Celtic word 'Boiohaemum', meaning home of the Boii people, a Celtic tribe which settled in Central Europe centuries before the Slavic peoples arrived. Ahead of the Celtic New Year, Brian Kenety takes a look at efforts to celebrate and promote the Czech lands' ancient heritage.

The Czech Republic needs to make some very big changes if it is going to be a successful country in the future. So says a study out this week with the grand title of Zprava o stavu zeme, or Report on the State of the Country. It was commissioned by former prime minister Vladimir Spidla and written by a team of top Czech economists and sociologists.

In the last 15 years, Czech society has undergone immense changes, with many Western trends crossing the former Iron Curtain. One of the most striking changes is the age at which women have their first baby; whereas in 1992 almost half of Czech women had their first child between 20 and 24, a decade later that number has fallen to just a quarter, according to a new study released this week.

The Czech Chamber Philharmonic played their first concert of the season last Friday evening in a most unusual venue - a former communist party hotel in Prague 6.

On the night of April 2, 2002, one of the oldest wooden churches in the world caught fire due to an electrical fault. Flames shot 25 metres high and all attempts at saving the building failed. St. Catherine's Church, located in the northern Moravian city Ostrava, was one of the most important monuments in the region and the tragic fire came as a shock to residents. Now, a little over two years later, the church stands once again, looking just as it did before.

North Moravia, already suffering from severe industrial decline, has been dealt another blow, with the region's largest steelmaker about to begin laying off 2,000 people. But Ispat Nova Hut is offering workers an unusually generous severance payment of up to 25 months' salary.

The early days of Dilny tvorivosti - the Workshops of Creativity - were difficult, but as it seems now dawn is finally breaking. The organisation, which helps young disabled to integrate and find employment by teaching them how to be self-sufficient, successfully introduced its first cultural festival Struhadlo just a few days ago. Struhadlo is an unusual title, it's something you would normally use in your kitchen to grate cheese - a grater.

Czech police president Jiri Kolar is under fire for having said last week that bugging phone lines is "normal" police practice, which does not infringe on citizens' rights and should not be of any concern to people — as long as they abide by the law. Mr Kolar is right about one thing — electronic surveillance and wiretapping is widespread in the Czech Republic.