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In the last six decades, over five million young people in over 100 countries have participated in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, and have happy memories of helping the elderly across roads and trudging up steep hills with heavy rucksacks. Since 1993, this experience has been available to young people in the Czech Republic. The scheme, which encourages young people to become active citizens in their home countries, was introduced to this country by a Czech friend of the British Royal Family, and has the full backing of the Czech senate, where

What seemed to be a matter of fact turned into a defeat for Czech diplomats at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. The Czech Republic's bid for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council of the UN ended without success. Czechs withdrew their candidacy into the Security Council after the second voting round results indicated that an increasing number of countries supported Croatia, the other candidate for the post.

On Tuesday a court in Prague began hearing the case against Ludmila Brozova-Polednova, the last living participant in one of the most notorious show trials of communist-era Czechoslovakia. In 1950, Mrs Brozova-Polednova was a 29-year-old prosecutor who helped condemn the democratic politician Milada Horakova to death. Now 86, she is being tried as an accomplice to murder.

Representatives of around thirty Czech and international NGOs gathered outside the Czech Senate on Monday, to hand over a petition to the Senate's chairman. The issue that had made them unite was a proposed change to the law which if approved, they said, would deny foreigners seeking residency in the Czech Republic some of their basic human rights. Czech MPs are currently discussing whether foreigners who marry Czechs should automatically be granted a long-term residency permit in the country - or whether this system is currently too open to abuse.

After 17 years, property settlement between the Czech state and the churches active in the country finally seems to be is sight. Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka announced on Sunday that a governmental commission in charge of property settlement issues arrived at an agreement with church representatives, and that the first draft of the settlement bill is ready. Although the situation is somewhat more complicated than that, Czech churches and religious associations in the country do finally have good chances of their property claims being

Neo-Nazi concerts and gatherings of right-wing extremists, as in other parts of Europe, are not uncommon in the Czech Republic, and in the past Czech police have been criticised for not doing enough to prevent such events. But in the last few years, say authorities, the situation has improved. According to statistics by the country's organised crime unit, the number of racist concerts has dropped, one reason why officials were somewhat taken aback by a recent report by the UN. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination suggested

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek set out on Sunday on a diplomatic quest to New York, together with Environment Minister Martin Bursik. Their mission is clear: to make sure that on Tuesday, when the General Assembly of the United Nations votes on the five new non-permanent members of the Security Council, two thirds of the 192 UN member countries support the Czech Republic. Radio Prague discussed the Czech chances of winning the post with Josef Zieleniec who was foreign minister on the one previous occasion that the country was on the UN Security

Britain's Princess Anne is in Prague this week for an official visit. Having spent Sunday at the annual steeplechase in Pardubice, where she handed out the trophy to the victor, the Princess arrived in Prague on Sunday evening, dining at Prague Castle with President Klaus and his wife. On Monday morning she attended a memorial ceremony at the Commonwealth Monument in Olsansky cemetary, before proceeding to what was for some residents a very special visit to the Sue Ryder Home, an old people's home in Prague run by British charity the Sue Ryder

One of the most controversial construction projects in the modern history of the Czech Republic has evidently come undone. The National Library had planned to build a large green-and-violet building, nicknamed the Blob, on Letna Plain, not far from Prague Castle. But city politicians are reportedly ready to scupper that idea, and it now seems that plans will have to be toned down - or the project moved out of the centre of the city completely.

One of the hot topics of Czech politics recently has been the search for a candidate with a serious chance of denting Vaclav Klaus's hopes of re-election in next February's presidential elections. Now a new name has emerged: the Czech-American economist Jan Svejnar. Opposition leader Jiri Paroubek is hoping his Social Democrats can persuade other parties to back Mr Svejnar. The economist already has the support of the Greens, the smallest party in the Chamber of Deputies, and the coalition government. But to defeat President Klaus, Jan Svejnar