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The distribution and sale of counterfeit DVDs, music CDs and video games are a bigger problem in the Czech Republic than anywhere else in Europe, with losses for the entertainment industry estimated at around one billion crowns (around 54 million US dollars) a year. Curbing the seemingly never-ending flow of smuggled discs is an uphill climb but the Czech police got a helping hand - or rather paw over the weekend - from Lucky and Flo - the famous pair of black Labrador retrievers who are the first animals trained to detect the unique scent of a

Three months before presidential elections, Czech-born economist and University of Michigan professor Jan Svejnar has emerged as a new candidate who may have what it takes to beat incumbent Vaclav Klaus. Jan Svejnar has so far gained the support of the strongest opposition party the Social Democrats and the Greens. During a visit to Prague this week, Mr Svejnar will try to win the support of the Communist Party, which could be key to the elections.

The familiar sound of harp opens the cycle of six symphonic poems entitled Ma Vlast or My Country, written by one of the most famous Czech composers Bedrich Smetana. This Monday marks exactly 125 years since its remarkably successful premiere at Prague's Zofin Palace in 1882.

Representatives of Czech communities from all over the world are gathering in Prague this week for a new festival celebrating Czech culture outside the Czech Republic. The first annual folklore festival for krajane, or Czechs living abroad, has the support of members of the Senate, where the festival had its inaugural ceremony on Monday. The highlights of the festival include an exhibit of traditional handicrafts, projections of documentary films concerning Czech culture outside the Czech Republic, as well as presentations of traditional folk singing

The lower house of parliament this week approved an amendment to the foreigners' law tightening the rules under which foreigners can apply for permanent residence or asylum in the Czech Republic. The move comes ahead of the country's planned entry to the Schengen border-free zone in December of this year.

Ask any Czech to name the country's most famous beverage, there's no doubt the answer, with only the fewest of exceptions, will be "Beer". Not only do Czechs drink more of the stuff per capita than anybody else, Czechs are also very proud of their brewing history, which includes the world's original Pilsner. For four years running the independent CVVM agency has been conducting polls mapping the Czechs' relationship to beer; the latest results were released on Wednesday.

It's eighteen years since the Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in Czechoslovakia, so if you're walking through the centre of Prague in the next ten days you might be surprised to stumble across a communist-era prison camp just a few metres from the McDonalds on Wenceslas Square. The mock camp is actually an exhibition to remind Czechs of the 8,000 people who died in prison camps and uranium mines during the communist era.

Jiri Cunek is stepping down. One of the most controversial figures in Czech politics announced at a special news conference on Thursday morning that as of next Wednesday he will no longer serve as either deputy prime minister or regional development minister. Previously the Christian Democrats leader had brazened out a number of affairs, though a scandal which broke this week seems to have finally put paid to Mr Cunek.

As of Thursday November 1st Czech citizens traveling to Canada for a period of up to three months will no longer need entry visas. The move ends a ten-year long drive on the part of Czech diplomats to ease travel for Czechs to this part of the world.

A large black 12-cylinder Tatra T 80 from early 1930s that was once the personal car of first Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk was hidden under a pile of tyres during the Second World War. It was later featured in the collections of the National Technical Museum in Prague, and has just gone on display at the Chrome Jewels exhibition in Vienna.