Press Review | All stories

After a fairly quiet weekend on the domestic scene, it is the Middle East crisis and the turbulent events in Venezuela which fill Monday's front pages. The papers carry details of US Secretary of State Colin Powell's attempt to broker a cease-fire after 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. "Futile talks" and "Colin Powell fails to bring about a break- through" read the headlines in Pravo and Mlada fronta Dnes.

All of today's papers cover Guenter Verheugen's visit to Prague - two of the dailies carry Mr Verheugen's photo on the front page, although Mlada fronta Dnes and Hospodarske noviny opt either for Colin Powell on his visit to Israel or Zdenek Tuma, the governor of the Czech National Bank, looking troubled by the strengthening crown.

Not surprisingly, the terrible events in the Middle East receive a lot of attention in Thursday's newspapers. Lidove noviny carries a front-page opinion piece entitled "Czechs and Israelis share a common experience". Comparing Czechoslovakia after World War II with the foundation of Israel, commentator Zbynek Petracek writes that the both countries fear the return of expellees.

The funeral of Britain's Queen Mother receives front-page coverage in most dailies today; Pravo and Lidove noviny feature pictures of the Queen attending Tuesday's service in Westminster Abbey, while Mlada fronta Dnes leads with pictures of the royal coffin on its final journey. The sober business daily Hospodarske noviny is the only paper to ignore the Queen Mother's funeral, opting instead for news that MPs have finally approved plans for the country's new state administration.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's one-day visit to Prague makes the headlines in all of today's papers, with his picture splashed over most of the front pages. All agree that the most important part of Mr Blair's visit was his assertion that the Benes decrees would not hinder the Czech Republic from entering the EU.

The front pages of today's papers carry photos of a happy and tearful Miss Czech Republic who was crowned on Saturday. The eighteen-year old blonde Katerina Prusova from the north Bohemian village of Chrastava won the contest despite a small handicap - a plaster cast on her left forearm. Katerina broke her arm riding a motorcycle.

There are many different types of stories making headlines in Friday's papers, one of the most disturbing being the death of an American stuntman on the Vltava river yesterday. The stuntman died during filming of the feature film "Triple X" when his paraglider crashed into one of the columns of Prague's Palacky bridge. Pravo carries a photo from the site of the accident on its front page.

Snapshots of continuing violence in the Middle East contrast sharply with pictures of wedding bliss in a small Czech town where the country's most popular singer Lucie Bila married her boyfriend in what was meant to be a secret wedding. Snapshots of the bride and groom grace most of today's front pages, and the papers carry whatever scraps of information they could glean about the surprise ceremony.

All of Wednesday's papers carry photos of the ruins of the 16th century gothic wooden church in Ostrava which was burnt out in the early hours of Tuesday morning - it was one of the oldest wooden churches in the country. The reopening of the Waldstein gardens in Prague's Mala Strana district also gets photo coverage in all the papers, as does one shockingly fat black man - he is world sumo wrestling champion Emanuel Yarbrough from New York, who is in town for this weekend's Czech sumo championships. Pravo calls him the heaviest man in the world; his weight - 354 kilogrammes.

The tragic death of an entire family in the town of Louny dominates the front pages today - the six member Polish family were entombed in a pile of rubble after four storeys of a hotel collapsed on Easter Monday. Also making the papers today is the death of Britain's Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, better known as the Queen Mother, who died on Saturday at the age of 101.