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Prague is seriously considering making a bid to host the summer Olympic Games. Although two previous bids were unsuccessful, the city hall authorities feel that this time things could really work out. Although the target years are 2016 or 2020, the city hall has already unveiled big plans for the event.

Ukrainians have demonstrated in support of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko outside their country's embassy here in Prague, as the crisis following Ukraine's presidential elections has deepened. There have been similar scenes in cities around Europe, and in Kiev tens of thousands of demonstrators surrounded government buildings.

The world's largest bottle of wine was auctioned off at Sotheby's in New York last weekend. Dubbed "Maximus" by the president of the U.S. chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers, the mammoth bottle -- which contains over 1,200 glasses of red wine -- was fashioned by Czech craftsmen and glassblowers.

Human trafficking is increasingly taking center stage as one of the world's most important, yet most invisible crimes. After the fall of communism in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia two years later, political and economic instability in some parts of Central and Eastern Europe provided fertile ground for criminal exploitation of human beings. Sex trafficking became an ever-growing tragedy, but other forms of exploitation, such as forced labor, have also come to the fore. Maida Agovic reports about efforts to counter

During the Communist era there were over two and a half million political prisoners in Czechoslovakia. They were sent to both prisons and labour camps, often - especially in the 1950s - in the most appalling conditions. Fifteen years after the fall of Communism, the Czech government has finally decided to pay compensation to former political prisoners. Furthermore, it has reversed a previous decision and now wants to also compensate those who were imprisoned in the post-1968 period known as "normalization".

After the successful launch of the first Czech parliamentary satellite TV channel last week, one has to wonder when the electronic media in this country will move on to the next step - a news channel. Is Czech society ready for such a move, and could an all-news television or radio station survive in this country?

Egypt's famous necropolis Abusir, near Saqqara, has been called the site of forgotten kings- a complex of pyramids dating back to the Old Kingdom: some two thousand years BC. Today, four pyramids still stand above the rubble and the sand; in the surroundings lie hidden tombs of priests and private officials. These tombs are now seeing the light of day thanks to the Czech Institute of Egyptology, leading excavation and discovery in the area for the last 44 years. A new exhibition in Prague explores the extent of the Czech contribution and offers

The government's commissioner for human rights, MP Svatopluk Karasek, raised a few eyebrows on Tuesday when he wore a tie bearing a strong anti-Communist Party message to the Chamber of Deputies. But it wasn't the first high-profile outing for the rude slogan.

The International Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC), which was formed under the initiative of former Czech president Vaclav Havel, has just held an international forum in Costa Rica, at which participants signed what has been called the "San Jose Memorandum". Former Latin American presidents, politicians, and activists from Cuban human rights organisations came together to discuss the importance of Latin America joining in the promotion of human rights in Cuba.

Despite gradual changes in legislation, women on the Czech labour market still face a lot of challenges, especially if they have or want to start a family. Difficulties in balancing their personal and working life make many women give up their careers and cause employers to lose a lot of talented staff. Those companies in the Czech Republic that have decided to tackle this issue had a chance to show off their achievements this week in the country's first ever contest for the company with the best equal opportunities policy.