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In the course of the last decade the Czech police force has increasingly been confronted with various forms of extremism and street violence. And more often than not it has been criticized for either failing to take action or over-reacting. The Interior Ministry says it is training officers to deal with such situations and has now issued a manual to help them recognize various extremist symbols.

A spying scandal which broke on the eve of last June's general elections is once more in the headlines. On Thursday the minister of the interior said he had proof that inspectors, acting on the orders of his predecessor and a former prime minister, tapped the phones of some four dozen people - and lied to the court while applying for permission.

The Czech prime minister has never been one to mince his words. And his increasingly controversial statements and vulgar gestures have now got him in hot water. His behaviour has raised the ire of the opposition and most recently the Union of War Veterans. To top it all, a Prague lawyer is now pressing charges against him for promoting an extremist ideology.

Renowned architect Jan Kaplicky's design for the new Czech National Library building in Prague - which was selected from several proposals submitted in a competition for the project - has engendered much controversy. The futuristic building, which will look like a huge green and purple octopus with a big glass eye, has provoked heated debate among supporters and opponents of the project. Now the Czech Chamber of Architects has entered the fray. They claim the winning design actually breaks the rules that were set for the competition and are going

Despite sustained pressure, beleaguered deputy prime minister Jiri Cunek appears set to remain in the Czech government. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek had said an investigation into alleged bribe-taking made his position untenable, while Environment Minister Martin Bursik made a direct call for Mr Cunek to resign. But after a meeting with both men Jiri Cunek's position in government looks secure - for now at least.

Pupils from Prague's Secondary School for Environmental Studies sat down at the city's Atlas cinema on Thursday morning for a showing of Al Gore's award-winning documentary on global warming - An Inconvenient Truth. Afterwards students were given the chance to put questions to Environment Minister Martin Bursik, who attends such showings on a regular basis.

This week the European Commission said it was going to cut substantially the Czech Republic's greenhouse gas emissions quota. The news has the Czech industrial sector up in arms, and there have been reports electricity bills will rise. The government is now considering whether to fight the decision in a European court. But does the Czech Republic really need a higher quota?

Eighteen years after the Velvet Revolution some will no doubt be surprised to learn that a number of streets in Prague still bear the names of highly controversial figures dating back to the communist era. Now some are questioning whether that should be the case. The districts of Prague 7 and 6 have opened public discussion on the subject with a view to eventually changing at least some of the more controversial names.

This week some of the key figures in Czechoslovakia's Charter 77 protest movement are getting together in London with several of the British intellectuals who supported them 30 years ago. Charter signatories such as Vaclav Havel and Pavel Landovsky will be sharing a theatre stage on Thursday night with the likes of Tom Stoppard and Roger Scruton for a debate on the legacy of the protest movement - and more.

Last year the Prague city hall came up with the idea of commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud by erecting a statue of the Moravian-born Viennese psychiatrist in the centre of Prague. The sculpture was to be unveiled in May this year in a little square just outside the old Prague Jewish quarter. However, the proposal caused so much controversy in the area - partly because Freud never set foot in that part of Prague - that the Prague 1 district has decided to hold a referendum on whether the founding father of psychoanalysis