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Over the weekend, BIS, the Czech intelligence agency, made a surprising announcement: North Korean agents have made three known attempts to purchase component parts for their nuclear program from Czech sources within the past year.

The "National Theatre House" in the Moravian town of Prostejov - a centre of the Czech clothes industry - has just put some unusual items on display. The Art Nouveau house of culture, which was built in 1907, is exhibiting negligees from the early 20th century. The owners of the elegant dressing gowns are the town's residents themselves. Dita Asiedu reports:

In one weeks' time Czechs will be marking the 17th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which toppled the communist regime. Do they still remember what the communist days were like - and are they happy with their lives today? A poll conducted by the CVVM agency for researching public opinion suggests that Czechs are extremely disgruntled with what's going on around them these days.

If ever you need proof that poetry can be fun and popular, the Czech Republic's annual international poetry festival "Den poezie" - or "day of poetry" offers it in abundance. The festival traditionally takes place around the birthday of the much loved 19th century Czech romantic poet, Karel Hynek Macha who was born in 1810. It offers poetry that caters to all tastes and generations, and not just from the Czech Republic. Poets from countries ranging from Romania to Chile or Israel will be here to read and talk about their poetry. One of the main organizers

The widespread use of illegal drugs is one of the unwelcome changes brought to the Czech Republic with the fall of communism. The National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Use is the official government body in this area, and has just brought out its report for 2005. Its findings are in some senses positive, though there has been a worrying rise in the illegal use of one heroin substitute. I discussed the new report with the director of the drug monitoring centre, Viktor Mravcik.

In April this year, the Foundation for Holocaust Victims announced that it concluded a compensation programme for Holocaust victims; it had distributed over 4 million dollars put in by the Czech state among some 500 claimants from 27 countries. However, an important chapter still remained to be addressed regarding the mitigation of property injustices caused to Holocaust victims - the return of confiscated art objects. The deadline for claims was originally set for the end of this year. But thanks to an amendment to the law, Holocaust survivors

With an annual consumption of 156 liters per head Czechs are the world's biggest beer consumers. Now - a proposed increase in minimum alcohol excise duties in the EU states is threatening to send up the price of the Czech national beverage. On Tuesday the Czech Republic and three other EU members - Germany, Lithuania and Latvia - blocked the proposal. But the fight over the price of beer is not over. The excise duty price hike will be back on the EU's agenda at the end of November.

Throughout 2006, Prague's Jewish Museum has been celebrating its 100th anniversary with a series of exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events. At the moment it is home to an exhibition called The Second Life of Czech Torah Scrolls. As the title suggests, the manuscripts have had an interesting history; some are being shown in the Czech capital after an absence of over four decades.

This week saw an important milestone for the Czech mission in Iraq: on Tuesday Czech military police serving at the Al Shaiba base near Basra, in the southern part of the country, officially handed over command of training at the police academy to Iraqi officials for the first time. Over the last three years Czech military police serving in Basra have trained thousands of Iraqi officers.

The penny farthing bicycle has long since gone the way of the carrier pigeon and the coal-fired railroad train. Nevertheless, Czech devotees of these early bicycles gather from time to time to resurrect the spirit of the Victorian age, as they did last weekend in Prague.