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On Tuesday the United States Congress adopted a resolution in which it paid tribute to the former Czech president Vaclav Havel. This was the result of an initiative led by one American congressman who was honoured to meet Mr Havel at a rock concert in the 1980s - and then wanted to honour the former Czech president in the United States Congress.

Amid a deep crisis in NATO over plans to protect Turkey in the event of a US-led war on Iraq, the Czech Republic has expressed support for the United States and Great Britain, pledging military assistance to Turkey. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla announced the Czech Republic would back its NATO ally in case of an attack by Iraq.

Almost six months after last August's devastating floods, the Prague metro system is still not fully functional, with only two of the three underground lines in full operation. Travellers along the B line of the system often find themselves having to transfer to buses or trams, which take them to the next operational metro station. Passengers sometimes even find that some days the trains on line B have ceased to operate at some stations - even though they were running at those same stations the day before. The journey may finally become less complicated...

A recently published book in the Czech Republic titled "Tabu" has attracted strong criticism from the leaders of the country's Jewish community. Written by Petr Bakalar, the release "Tabu" has been described by Tomas Jelinek, the chairperson of the Jewish community in Prague, as being more dangerous than when Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" came out. These comments were made by Mr Jelinek to the Czech newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes today, as a debate raged on its front pages between the book's critics and its author.

It's just over two weeks to go before parliament tries for the third and probably the last time to elect a successor to President Vaclav Havel. It's still unclear whether this third attempt will be any more successful than the first two. But what we do know for certain is that once again former prime minister Vaclav Klaus looks to be the strongest candidate, and once again it's the Communist Party which could hold the key to victory. Rob Cameron joins me in the studio now, Rob where do we stand with just over two weeks to go?

The Czech unemployment rate reached a record high of 10.2 percent in January. This is the first time unemployment has exceeded the 10 percent psychological barrier since the fall of communism in November of 1989.

The Czech Police have joined forces with the National Anti-Drug Bureau and the Prison Services to crack down on drug dealers and stop drugs getting into the hands of prison inmates. Two operations code-named Gaston and Motylek, or Butterfly, appear to have brought real results. Dita Asiedu reports:

Uncertainty over what is going to happen in Iraq has been stealing headlines around the world. The debate heated on Monday when France, Germany, and Belgium failed to support an action within NATO which would have seen troops sent to defend Turkish territory in the event of war. Now the division over what to do in Iraq is ever clearer, with the United States facing opposition at almost every turn. The Czech Republic has promised the United States assistance and the parliament agreed to send an elite anti-chemical unit to Kuwait. However, both

At a time when unemployment in the Czech Republic has breached 10 percent one project could play a vitally important role in job retraining and re-qualification: the National Project for Computer Literacy, kicked off this week by the new Ministry for Information Technology. The aim of the project, according to the Information Minister Vladimir Mlynar, is to make the knowledge of computers and internet use accessible to a wider sphere of the population, in order to expand general proficiency and skills.

What are the Czech and Slovak nations like ten years after the breakup of Czechoslovakia? The differences and similarities between them are revealed in a study released last week by the Median research company.