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All this week the western Czech town of Plzen has been hosting an orgy of Czech film. The Finale Plzen film festival is devoted almost entirely to domestic production - and over the past few days thousands of film-lovers and professionals have been flocking to the town to see some of the dozens of Czech films on show. David Vaughan has just come back from the festival and brings the following report.

Members of the British Czech and Slovak Association gathered in London recently for an interesting talk by architect Robert Voticky on Prague after last August's floods. After the talk honorary secretary Maria Hughes told me a little about the association's origins and activities.

After a stormy five hour debate in Parliament on Wednesday, the governing coalition voted to dissolve the TV and Radio Council, holding it responsible for the Czech Republic's lost arbitration with the Bermuda based media company CME on the grounds that the state had failed to protect its investment in private TV NOVA. The lost arbitration will cost the Czech Republic over 10 billion crowns and in recent weeks there has been many a heated debate on who is responsible and who should foot the bill.

Two more Czechs decided on Wednesday to take their lives in the most dramatic of manners, committing suicide by dousing themselves in gasoline and then setting themselves on fire. One died at the scene, another is fighting for his life at a Prague hospital. Meanwhile a shocked public has been forced to ask itself "why". What possible circumstances could drive someone at the height of their youth to take such a desperate measure?

Destination Kuwait: that is likely to be the arrival point for the Czech's 7th field hospital over the next few days, in accordance with last week's UN request for aid. If approved by parliament this week, a total of three hundred personnel, including doctors, nurses, and logistics staff, will join the anti-chemical unit already stationed in Kuwait. They will be ready to cross into Iraq to help lessen the humanitarian crisis in the southern part of the country.

On Tuesday the thirteenth century stone bridge in the southern Bohemian town of Pisek was reopened to pedestrians. The 111-metre long bridge is famous as the oldest remaining bridge in the Czech Republic, and for the statues of saints and the crucifixion of Christ which decorate it. However, during the disastrous floods in the Czech Republic last year, the bridge became known for something else as well: it was one of the most badly damaged cultural monuments in the country.

Ever since the fall of the communist regime in 1989, the Czech Army has been quick to assist in international warfare and peace operations. Although not involved in direct combat, Czech soldiers have made quite a name for themselves thanks to their excellent field hospitals and anti-chemical warfare units. They have participated in the Gulf War, wars in the former Yugoslavia, the Enduring Freedom operation in Afghanistan and Kuwait, and the ongoing Iraqi Freedom operation. Dita Asiedu reports:

When Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty - headquartered in central Prague - began its Radio Free Iraq service in 1998, the risk of a terrorist attack against it increased significantly. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, the Czech police and military have been guarding the radio station's building, and have installed concrete barricades and armoured personnel carriers in front of it. Recently, the Czech Foreign Ministry expelled five Iraqi diplomats, partly because it had reason to suspect that the Iraqi secret

After months of speculation over the future of a much-needed highway for north-east Moravia, the Czech cabinet has decided to pull the plug on previous plans involving a private construction investor. The cabinet reached the conclusion the highway could be completed faster - and cheaper - by the government alone. Left in the cold: Israeli company Housing & Construction, awarded the contract without tender, something many observers interpreted as controversial from the start.

Founded in 1862 during the Czech national revival, the Sokol sports organisation was dedicated to creating a strong and fit Czech people ready to build a new state. The London branch of Sokol was founded in 1903. When I attended one of their meetings recently I asked chairman Ladislav Potucek who had set up London Sokol an incredible 100 years ago?