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Although Czechs have never been too eager to go to war, arms production has played an important role in the Czech economy. The Czechoslovak army before the Second World War was one of the best equipped in Europe, in the face of a feared German invasion. After the war, communist Czechoslovakia continued in the tradition of massive armament production. Czechoslovak weapons were used in a number of conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The infamous Czech-made explosive Semtex was used in several terrorist attacks. Arms production

The small town of Terezin in northern Bohemia is known to most people for its tragic fate during the Second World War. The Nazis turned the whole town into a ghetto where tens of thousands of Jews from throughout Europe were held. Most died, either in Terezin itself or when they were sent on to the death camps in the east.

The agriculture chapter was the most complicated part of the negotiations before the accession of the Czech Republic into the EU in May this year. The most criticism came down on Czech veterinary controls and the fragmentary legislation governing them. For their part farmers feared new competition, lower sales figures and even bankruptcy. Now, nearly 7 months down the line, farmers are in a position to compare the situation with what went before and evaluate how useful and fair the EU has been to the Czech farming sector.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, Nikola Brabenec set out to speak with the now full grown children of dissidents involved in Charter 77, the human rights declaration which brought together the dissident movement.

Prague's main train station is the first thing many tourists see when they reach the city, but it's also one of the city's best-known sites for a particular kind of sex tourism. The prostitutes who have worked here say this is where foreign men come to find the young male sex workers known here as rent boys.

The Czech Republic is gripped with election fever - the papers are full of evaluations, analysis, opinion poll results, and predictions. But it is not elections involving Czechs that the papers are concentrating on - it's the Presidential elections in the United States and this despite the fact that Czechs are to go to the polls this weekend to vote for one-third of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, and in regional elections. Yes, granted, the US presidential elections are much more interesting and they are important... but - for Czechs

The Czech Republic boasts a large Vietnamese community, dating back to the days when the two countries were part of the Communist bloc. Today there are an estimated 40,000 Vietnamese here, the large majority of them working as market traders. The focal point of Prague's Vietnamese community is a huge open-air market known to Czechs as "Little Hanoi", and to Vietnamese as "Sapa", after an area of outstanding natural beauty in Vietnam. Rob Cameron was given a guided tour of Sapa by Mimi Nguyen, a 26-year-old student from Hanoi.

In the last few weeks the Czech papers have been full of it: the alleged attempt to bribe the government MP Zdenek Koristka. It started two months ago. Mr Koristka claimed that prior to a confidence vote in parliament, two men representing the opposition Civic Democrats tried to bribe him. His story was that they offered him a substantial amount of money as well as an ambassador's post if he used his vote to bring down the government - which has a parliamentary majority of just one. Although nothing has been proved, amid accusation and counter-accusation,

For every ten thousand children under the age of three, the Czech Republic has sixty in institutional care. Compared to surrounding countries, this number is at least twice higher than the average, simply because the Czech Republic has yet to change its policy on childcare. Although numerous studies from all over the world show that a child's development is harmed in institutions, most children who are orphans or cannot live with their parents are sent off to children's homes rather than foster families.

A new bill on registered partnerships for same-sex couples is due to go before the Czech parliament in the coming weeks. Although similar legislation has failed in the past, polls show that public opinion has become increasingly favourable toward same-sex unions in recent years, and analysts say that this time the legislation has a reasonable chance of being adopted. So is the Czech Republic about to join a number of Western European countries in permitting registered partnerships? In this week's Talking Point, we look at the issue of same-sex unions