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Throughout June, the Czech capital Prague is playing host to the ninth annual Nine Gates festival of Czech-German-Jewish culture. Nine Gates is a combination of music, theatre and literature of the period before the Second World War, when Prague was a multiethnic, multicultural city, most of whose inhabitants were comfortable speaking both Czech and German.

Leaders of EU countries agreed in Brussels on Friday that the Lisbon Treaty ratification process will continue in the remaining seven countries, regardless of last week’s no vote by the Irish. They also made a concession to the Czech Republic where the process is pending on a verdict of the country’s constitutional court.

Leaders of the European Union are sitting down in Brussels on Thursday to try to find a way out of the crisis created by Ireland’s rejection of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in Friday’s referendum. Following Britain’s ratification, all eyes are on the Czech Republic, where the Senate has sent the document to the Constitutional Court before they’ll go any further. So with Czech ratification on hold, what happens next? Rob Cameron spoke to Petr Mach, director of the Eurosceptic think tank the Centre for Economics and Politics, and began by asking him whether

'Little Otik' is topping the bill at the National Theatre of Scotland this season. The play is an adaptation of Czech animator Jan Švankmajer’s film ‘Otesánek’, which is in turn an adaptation of a Czech fairytale. The story? A childless couple carve a baby out of a tree stump, only to look on in horror as it starts to develop an appetite for human flesh. The Scottish theatre’s choice sparked controversy when it was unveiled earlier in the year. On the eve of the play’s final performance, I asked director Matthew Lenton what had attracted him to

Newly released figures suggest that 800,000 Czechs are suffering from diabetes. Recently, the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek revealed that he too suffers from the condition – primarily caused by stress and a poor diet. He immediately announced that he would change his lifestyle. But what of the nearly one in ten Czechs that now also suffer from the condition?

Retired US astronaut Eugene Cernan is one of only three people to have landed on the moon twice. In fact, he is the last human being to have walked on the moon: as commander of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, he was the last astronaut to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module before the crew returned to Earth. As the name might suggest, Mr Cernan is of Czechoslovak descent. Indeed, he carried Czechoslovakia’s flag with him on his final space flight. He told me why:

Wednesday sees the opening of the 50th Smetana’s Litomyšl International Opera Festival. During the annual event, composer Bedřich Smetana’s home town in east Bohemia is transformed into a paradise for music lovers, and not only opera buffs – Smetana’s Litomyšl also takes in various other musical forms.

A former Roma concentration camp in South Moravia was turned into a holiday resort in the 1960s. Now the site is set to become a documentation and educational centre with a permanent exposition on the Romany Holocaust – the first institution of its kind in the Czech Republic.

Drunk driving in the Czech Republic, like other countries, remains a serious problem, so when police announced a clampdown in the Czech capital this week, most probably expected them to apprehend a lot of motorists who were over the limit. But things haven’t quite worked out that way. The daily Lidové noviny has questioned the campaign, saying it’s more about free advertising for a major brewery than actually tackling the problem of drunk driving.

Following Sunday’s dramatic defeat against Turkey in the Euro 2008 football championships, Czech coach Karel Brückner confirmed that he will step down. We examine his life and career: