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Rarely can a Czech election have aroused so little public interest. It's easy to forget that this Friday and Saturday, a third of the Czech electorate will have the chance to go to the polls. They'll be voting in elections to the Senate, the upper house of the Czech parliament, a political institution that since it came into being six years ago has never really captured the public imagination. Few Czechs are convinced by the idea of the Senate as a chamber of wise political elders and there have often been calls for it to be abolished altogether.

Preparations for the November NATO summit in Prague have accelerated and, amidst growing international concern over possible terrorist attacks and street riots, the summit's organizers are placing a huge stress on security. Debates on how many fighter jets will be protecting the skies over Prague, how many police officers will be out in the streets and how the two day summit will restrict movement around the Czech capital have become so widespread they have elicited a protest from President Havel who said he had the impression that Prague was preparing

The ten countries in the forefront to join the European Union in the next round of enlargement put on a show of unity at a meeting in Prague on Tuesday. While the fifteen current EU members remain divided over how a bigger Europe will work, foreign ministers from the ten applicant countries said they were keen to proceed hand in hand in the final phase of their accession talks. Alena Skodova has more:

The Czech Press Photo is a competition for the best photographs of the year taken by Czech and Slovak photographers. On Monday, the 8-member international jury announced the results of this year's event at Prague City Hall, where journalists were shown the winning photos. Alena Skodova was there and has this report:

Ten years ago, an international conference was held in Prague with the aim of examining the role of antisemitism in the history, politics and society of Central and East Europe. Last week, a follow-up conference was held at the Radio Free Europe headquarters in the Czech capital on the topic "Antisemitism in Post-Totalitarian Europe - 10 Years Later."

The end of President Havel's term is swiftly approaching and the question who will succeed him continues to make headlines. So far, there are eight candidates, among them the country's ombudsman Otakar Motejl, Senate chairman Petr Pithart and opposition Civic Democrat leader Vaclav Klaus, described by his supporters as the father of economic transformation. But realistically Mr Klaus has little chance of being elected under the current parliamentary system, and the party is now calling openly for the president to be elected directly - a U-turn

Over forty world opinion formers were in Prague for the weekend, on the invitation of President Vaclav Havel, for the sixth Forum 2000 conference. They were discussing one of the pressing problems of our time - the economic gap between North and South - and many other problems relating to globalisation.

The Czech Republic's hopes of becoming a full member of the European Union came closer to reality at the weekend, after the people of Ireland said a resounding "Yes" to the Nice Treaty, seen as crucial to plans to expand the EU in 2004. Almost 63 percent said "Yes" this time around - as opposed to the 54 percent who said "No" in the first referendum last year. The result was much better than expected, ending weeks of nervous anticipation among the EU and the candidate countries. Stefan Auer is a Slovak politics lecturer teaching at University College Dublin's

A new fountain was unveiled on the Kinsky Square in the Prague 5 district on Thursday evening. Crowds of people from the Smichov district came to see the unveiling ceremony, curious about the new look of their neighbourhood. Alena Skodova was there, too, and has this report:

Most Czechs are still coming to terms with the havoc that this year's floods wrought on their family finances. But the real cost of the floods is way beyond the assessed damage. Czech insurance companies have announced that in the wake of this year's devastating floods they plan to increase insurance rates on property by 15 to 30 % .