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Speaking in Prague on Friday, the Dalai Lama said it was not possible to force China into becoming democratic – rather such change should come from within, he said. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader made the comments at a two-day conference on peace in Asia, which was also attended by a leader of China’s Uighur Muslim minority, Rebija Kadeer. She said the international community should pressure Beijing into improving human rights. Former Czech president Václav Havel, whose Forum 2000 organised the conference, said it was intended to show support for human rights activists in China, Tibet, North Korea, Burma and elsewhere in the region.

During Václav Havel’s first year as Czechoslovak president, Prague Castle saw a string of visitors from around the world. And they did not just include heads of state and other political dignitaries. On January 21 1990, one of the first foreign guests to be received by the new president was none other than the legendary American rock musician, Frank Zappa, who had been one of the inspirations for the Czech underground movement in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Havel himself.

On December 29 1989, Czechoslovakia’s Federal Parliament elected Václav Havel as the country’s president. In one of the many paradoxes of the Velvet Revolution, this was the same communist-dominated parliament that had previously fought so hard to stem the flow of change.

The previous Czech president, Václav Havel, is to discuss “climate change in Czech society” in a video for the Green Party, who he is backing in October’s elections. The Greens are planning to put the one-minute film on their Youtube channel and may also broadcast it on television. Opinion polls suggest the party may not get into the lower house in the elections.

The former Czech president Václav Havel is among the personalities invited to a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI during his upcoming visit to Prague, the ctk news agency has reported. The meeting in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle on September 26 will be attended by politicians, leading cultural figures and diplomats. The Pope is to visit the Czech Republic on September 26-28 at the invitation of President Vaclav Klaus. During his visit, he will celebrate masses in Brno and in Stara Boleslav, central Bohemia, in honour of St Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech nation.

Former Czech president Václav Havel has come out in support of the Green Party ahead of October’s early general election. He also backed the party before elections to the European Parliament in June in which the Greens did not win any seats. So, 20 years after he led the Velvet Revolution, does Mr Havel still have political influence? Does his endorsement actually count for much? That’s a question Radio Prague put to political analyst Petr Just, from Prague’s Metropolitan University.

Václav Havel, a former president of the Czech Republic, is publicly backing the Green Party ahead of general elections to be held in October. The leader of the 1989 Velvet Revolution also came out in support of the Greens before elections to the European Parliament in June, when the party won no seats. The Green Party won six seats in the last elections to the Chamber of Deputies and were the smallest grouping in a coalition government led by Mirek Topolánek. However, most recent opinion polls have suggested the Greens would not make the five-percent threshold needed to win any seats in October.

Former Czech president Václav Havel has condemned the 18-month house arrest a Burmese court imposed on opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday. Mr. Havel said he considers the verdict "scandalous" and typical of "the political cynicism of one of the toughest totalitarian regimes in the world." Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years under house arrest. Her latest sentence was to expire in May of this year, but she was given another sentence on the pretext of having let an uninvited U.S. citizen spend a night in her house. Commentators say this is clearly an attempt to prevent her running in next year's elections.

All this year Czechs are remembering the fall of communism in November 1989, but just what was it exactly? Was it the “overthrow” of communism? Or simply “the collapse”? That’s a debate that’s still simmering away in Czech society, and on Saturday the country’s president Václav Klaus once again waded into it, telling students in Prague that the role of individuals in 1989 is often overestimated.

Former Czech president Václav Havel and former foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg are among the signatories of an open letter that has been prepared for President Barack Obama. The letter – signed by other former political heavyweights and intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe – calls for Washington not to ignore the region as the price for improved relations with Moscow. Former European affairs minister Alexandr Vondra told the Czech paper Lidové noviny that Obama is looking for quick results and improved relations with Russia and that could be at the expense of former Soviet block countries.

The letter warns that a total renunciation of US plans for an anti-radar system in the Czech Republic and Poland - or Russian involvement in them - would undermine trust in the US. Mr Vondra is due to deliver the letter to US leaders in Washington.