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In today's papers the usual photos of politicians have taken a back seat to pictures of St. Nicholas - that's right, it's "Mikulas" in the Czech Republic again, a special holiday here that acts as a run-up to Christmas. On the day many adults and teenagers dress up as St. Nick or devils and angels, to visit small children around the country to give them token presents and find out if they've been good or bad. And while tourists on Prague's Old Town Square are sometimes taken aback to see little kids bawling for fear of the devil, all ends well:

All the Czech newspapers today cover two main stories on their front pages: they feature a photo of a man in a pig mask illustrating reports on Wednesday's protest demonstration by Czech farmers in Prague. The other story is a sad one: it informs readers that after eight years of proceedings at various courts a murderer of a little girl is not behind bars yet.

The Czech press today continues to focus on the debate within the Social Democrat party over which candidate the party should support for the presidential elections, while the preferred candidate of Prime Minister Spidla - Otakar Motejl - is still answering questions regarding a road accident over twenty years ago in which Mr Motejl hit and killed an elderly man.

Most of today's papers carry a variety of stories ranging from the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin in Beijing, to farmers planning to stage protests across Central Europe tomorrow. A policeman who killed a four year-old boy in a road accident also makes the front pages today.

The presidential ambitions of former Prime Minister Milos Zeman receive in-depth coverage in all the papers today, and many feature an identical photo of Mr Zeman sitting in an armchair with pipe and slippers at his cottage in the country. "Some people told me I'd soon get bored of country life," he tells MLADA FRONTA DNES. "But after four months here I can say with absolute sincerity that I'm 100 percent happy. I do not want to move back to Prague."

The story of terrorist attacks that killed 16 and injured 80 in Mombasa, Kenya, Thursday dominates the pages of today's Czech dailies - with PRAVO showing a picture of the dead amidst the bombed-out rubble of a Kenyan hotel, a picture that doesn't make easy viewing. Other newspapers like LIDOVE NOVINY and MLADA FRONTA DNES feature photos of greatly relieved family members greeting their loved ones who were aboard an Israeli jet taking off from Mombasa's airport, narrowly missed by two missiles that could have brought the plane down. Reportedly

The demise of Czech TV head Jiri Balvin makes the front pages of all the dailies today - Balvin Falls, says LIDOVE NOVINY, adding he has until midnight on Thursday to clear out his desk. Mr Balvin has apparently paid the price for failing to reorganise the monolithic public TV network.

While there are a mixed bag of stories in Wednesday's press, almost all the front pages carry photos of a very happy Katerina Neumannova. The top Czech skier confirmed on Tuesday what had been widely known; that she is expecting a baby. The popular skier, who is 29, has been quick to make it clear she is planning a comeback, in three years time.

All the Czech newspapers feature on their front pages Carinthian governor Joerg Haider, who announced his retirement from politics on Monday, although he changed his mind on Tuesday, making the front pages rather redundant. Many Czech newspapers carry reactions to the Austrian election results, and say an Austria without Haider would be unlikely to put obstacles in the Czech Republic's path to the European Union.

The papers are dominated today by the weekend's groundbreaking elections in neighbouring Austria, which saw the conservative People's Party clinching victory for the first time in 35 years. Meanwhile Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party scored one of its worst ever results, losing almost two-thirds of its voters. "Haider Loses Election" says MLADA FRONTA DNES, summing things up nicely.