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Recently the world marked the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the world's highest mountain. In Prague mountaineering enthusiasts hankering for a bit of action headed for Petrin hill which served as the local Mount Everest - to be climbed 82 times in a simulated "Mount Everest climb". Daniela Lazarova went along and talked to Miroslav Caban, who climbed Mount Everest without an oxygen mask last year.

Recently the Czech Defense Ministry organized a get together for all Czech war veterans and soldiers serving in high risk missions around the world. More than 200 people filled the assembly hall - from Czechoslovak pilots who flew with the RAF in the Second World War to soldiers who had served in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Chechnya or Kosovo. Each had a story to tell - of treating malaria, of being abducted or getting caught in cross fire.

Spring is here and love is in the air - in this week's Magazine we'll take a look at two very different forms of courtship. One is an amateur children's performance of The Beauty and the Beast with its prescribed happy end and a more modern fairy tale - a radio competition in which a young woman picks her future husband in the course of a single weekend spent in the mountains.

Fighting a serious illness is a major challenge for any of us -much more so for children. Hospital wards where children are seriously sick or dying are heartrending places which most of us hope to avoid. A young student couple walked into one such ward in 1988 - with purely academic interests in mind : to ascertain the impact of a hospital environment on sick children. The project was to change their entire lives. Within three years of that first visit Jiri Kralovec and his wife Marketa set up a foundation to help improve the lives of sick and

The month of May seems to have put everyone in a better mood but more than anyone astronomers have reason to celebrate. This month will bring three important celestial phenomena - a very rare occurrence according to those in the know. And such events always create a stir in a country that has more than its fair share of astronomer enthusiasts. I talked to Martin Fuchs, an astronomer at the Prague Stefanik Observatory to find out more about what exactly is happening -and why so many Czechs are searching the skies these days.

Few tourists to Prague fail to visit the Lesser Quarter and it is one of the favourite haunts of Praguers as well. As soon as the sun comes out Charles Bridge - which leads to the Lesser Quarter - fills with people out for a stroll, with street painters and musicians who want to make some money off the tourists. It is a charming sight, but it is no longer the real thing. The old atmosphere of the Lesser Quarter, when artists and painters actually lived there, is long gone. I talked to Josef Stulc, chief conservationist at the State Institute for

A one-line excerpt there from a book titled "What do the blind actually do?". This refreshing look at the world around us is written by a group of blind or almost-blind people. They open up their world to us - their everyday lives, their impressions and feelings. The book alone is proof of the fact that the life of a blind person can be incredibly rich and that the blind have a great deal to offer the sighted majority. The selection of essays, poems and drawings is playful as well as serious and in many ways -an eye opener. This week's Magazine

Among the Prague sights that tourists love most is the Old Town Square. At Easter it is especially colorful - resounding with Easter music, crowded with stalls and the site of numerous contests. Strong-man, egg-throwing and pancake contests, among others. You too can get a taste of what's going on in this week's Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.

Helena Fejkova is a well known name in this country - she is a leading Czech fashion designer whose models make a statement at any gala evening. Seeing her showered with bouquets on the big night, you'd think her life was all champagne and roses - but of course it is a lot of hard work and a feeling of responsibility for her employees.

Every year members of Sisyfos, the Club of Sceptics, meet for a gala evening -the annual presentation of the Stray Boulder Awards to astrologers, faith healers, fortune tellers and other practitioners of pseudo science, not to mention those who give them publicity and thus help to "mislead the Czech public". Something akin to the Razzie Awards, the Stray Boulder has lots of fans and increasingly its winners are showing up for an evening of fun. The "judges" file in with much pomp and ceremony and there's a lot of witty banter between them and the