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The British journalist and author Neal Ascherson is widely regarded as one of the UK's leading experts on central and eastern Europe, and has experienced some of the key moments in the region's recent history at first hand. When he visited Prague recently, I asked Neal Ascherson where his interest in this part of the world had come from.

The legacy of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 remains an open wound, as was seen on Tuesday in the Czech parliament. Tempers rose over a bill aimed at giving financial compensation to people who suffered during the tragic events as Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into the country. David Vaughan reports.

The Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday overturned a proposal for victims of the 1968 Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia to receive financial compensation. Deputies of the Social Democrat and Communist parties joined forces to reject a bill drafted by the Civic Democrats according to which the families of people who were murdered as well as those who were injured or raped by the occupying forces between 1968 and 1991, when the last Soviet troops left the country, would be eligible for compensation. The families of those killed would get a million crowns, people who had been injured or raped half a million. The Civic Democratic Party has said it is outraged by the result of the vote.

It is now 35 years since the young history student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire in protest at the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. Last Thursday, students from Prague's Charles University, where Palach had been a student, held a candlelight procession through the city to commemorate his sacrifice.

On Friday, the Czech Republic marks the 35th anniversary of the self-immolation of student Jan Palach who set himself alight in protest at the growing lethargy in society to the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia.

There's no single issue dominating today's papers. While MLADA FRONTA DNES leads with an article on the forthcoming Czech military police mission to Iraq, the first story in HOSPODARSKE NOVINY looks at corruption in Czech football and PRAVO's main headline reads "Klaus teaches politicians a lesson with his Skoda Superb".

The cabinet decided on Wednesday to reject an opposition proposal calling for victims of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion to receive compensation from the state. The proposal, put forward by the main opposition Civic Democrat party, said victims and their immediate families should be compensated for the deaths and injuries that accompanied the 1968 invasion.

For this week's Witness we return again to the events of August 1968. As Soviet troops crushed the Prague Spring on the 21st August, the entire Czechoslovak leadership was spirited away to Moscow for what were euphemistically described as talks. Five days later, exactly 35 years ago, they returned, broken and bullied into signing a document that effectively legitimized the occupation of the country. The Communist Party First Secretary and leading force of the reforms, Alexander Dubcek, gave a radio address to the nation on the 27th August, immediately

A military band played outside the Czech Radio building on Thursday morning, as politicians lined up to lay wreaths at the plaque to those who lost their lives defending the station in August 1968. It's thirty-five years to the day since the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, a day of reflection and remembrance for the Czech people. Czechoslovak Radio played a particularly important role in the hours that followed the invasion, as besieged reporters broadcast desperate appeals for help to the outside world.

All kinds of different stories make the headlines today: shows an uncompromising Kofi Annan, the U.N. Secretary General, responding strongly to Tuesday apparent suicide attack in Baghdad that killed at least twenty-four and injured over a hundred. Meanwhile, highlights the return of weather-worn German tourists, kidnapped and held for five months by Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria. Reportedly 4.6 million euros were paid out to ensure their safe release.