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On Tuesday morning Václav Klaus addressed deputies in the lower house of the Czech Parliament for only the second time since his election as president. In his speech, Mr Klaus said the new government’s strong majority created an opportunity for economic reform that may not come again. He also called on MPs to reign in the country’s top court.

As we informed you yesterday, a biannual event is underway for Czechs living abroad to discuss, among other things, their attempts to keep Czech culture alive in their adopted countries. Today our reporter Christian Falvey went back to the Conference for Czech Compatriots and Culture to talk with some of the guests about their leaving Czechoslovakia and their work to sustain their Czech culture abroad.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg appears to have mended some fences with France on a just completed official visit. After veiled criticism from Mr. Schwarzenberg of French expulsions of Roma, this was set to be an awkward meeting but it seems to have ended with a desire to put future relations between Prague and Paris on a better footing.

Czechs living abroad and their descendants are currently meeting in Prague for a three-day conference. The 120 delegates from 16 adopted countries as diverse as America and Egypt are here to discuss the common interests of Czechs living abroad, primarily cultural life. Christian Falvey went to the opening of the conference to find out more.

In just over a month Czechs will go to the polls to vote in local and senate elections. The vote due to take place on October 15th-16th is expected to be influenced by two important factors – the change of balance on the Czech political scene following May’s general elections and the emphasis on cost-cutting at all levels of government intended to curb the deficit in public finances. As parties launch their campaigns, Radio Prague asked political analyst Jiří Pehe in what way this election campaign may differ from previous ones.

The central Bohemian town of Kolín, some 60 km east of Prague, was the scene of an unusual ceremony on Sunday. Local enthusiasts unveiled a memorial to two cartoon characters – two bears, who allegedly met outside the town, and whose adventures captured the imaginations of several generations of Czechs since their creation in mid 1960s.

The Czech Environment Ministry dismissed on Friday criticism voiced by a number of Czech NGOs over an environmental impact report for the construction of two new blocks at the Temelín nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia. Critics say that the study is incomplete, but most importantly, that the environmental impact assessment process is in breach of EU law.

Come Monday, September 6, our sharp-eared regular listeners are sure to noticed a change in our programme right from the beginning in the form of a new news jingle. That’s just one of a few new changes to Radio Prague’s audio format: as of Monday, several of our programmes will have new signature tunes, and the way we use other music and copyrighted sounds in our stories and features is going to be a bit different – and that goes for all six of Radio Prague’s broadcasts in different languages.

Thursday newspapers in the Czech Republic point out a wide gap in the performance of Czech students at the grade school and college levels. While younger students excel in school compared to the rest of the world, in higher education both enrolment and results are unimpressive. Radio Prague’s Christian Falvey reports on the situation and one of the ideas to improve it.

A Czech newspaper has blown the whistle on what appears to be a far reaching political corruption cartel involving multi-billion crown defence contracts. The Minister of Defence has sacked a long standing deputy minister and promised far reaching reform.