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Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has been awarded the Prize for Understanding between Nationalities and Peoples of Europe. The prize was awarded over the weekend in Pasov, Germnay by the media consortium Verlagsgruppe Passau. Also receiving the same award was Madeleine Albright, the former U.S. Secretary of State, who is of Czech origin. The prize is given to persons who have contributed significantly to the development of democracy, the protection of human rights, and encouraged understanding between different nationalities. The Verlagsgruppe Passau group first awarded the prize in 2005 to the former Israeli prime minister, Simon Peres.

Ex-president Havel meditates with Madonna, a stolen money machine crashes into a police car and a church wedding at St. Vitus' Cathedral? It is possible. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.

The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has called for more factual debates and fewer personal attacks in Czech politics. Speaking on Czech public television Mr. Havel said that especially as regards foreign policy issues the governing party and the opposition should put aside their resentments and stick to the facts. The three months of political deadlock which followed the June general elections strained relations between all parliamentary parties, in particular between the Civic and Social Democrats.

The 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival came to an end on Saturday and its organisers certainly have cause for celebration. By Wednesday, the number of accredited visitors had surpassed that for the entire festival last year. Overall close to 136,000 viewers attended the screenings of 268 feature films and documentaries.

Former Czech president and playwright Vaclav Havel as well as writer Arnost Lustig have received honorary doctorates from Western Michigan University - organising annual creative writing courses in Prague. Both Mr Havel and Mr Lustig were recognised on Monday for their literary work as well as for their contributions to human rights.

Mr Havel, who is 69, has received a number of honorary doctorates since leaving public office in 2003. Mr Lustig, connected with Western Michigan University's writing courses, said that cooperation between the university and Prague's Charles University formed a connection between America and the Czech Republic. Of Jewish origin, the writer, now 79, survived internment in Nazi concentration camps during World War Two. After the war he worked as a journalist, but left Czechoslovakia after the 1968 invasion by Warsaw Pact troops. Mr Lustig now lives in Washington.

Tom Stoppard, one of the greatest living playwrights, has written a new play called Rock 'n' Roll and it includes some serious Czech content. Set in two locations—Prague and Cambridge—the scenes shift from those taking place in Czechoslovakia between 1968 and 1989, to those in England which revolve around the family of an academic Marxist, Max Morrow. The connecting point is a Czech student studying at Cambridge, Jan, who falls in love with Max's daughter. Described as a tragicomic family saga intertwined with a political drama set in Normalization-era Czechoslovakia,

A new book by former president Vaclav Havel has been a big hit with Czech readers, making the best-seller chart within days of its publication. Available only in Czech thus far, Prosim Strucne—which can be translated as "Briefly, please"—may not be what readers expect from the former Czech president.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel and South African Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu have urged the United Nations to pass a resolution against Burma's human rights violations. Burma has been under a military dictatorship since 1962. In a letter sent to the UN, the two peace activists say that the lack of international action gives regimes like the military regime in Burma a "sense of impunity". The letter was sent on the occasion of the 61 birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Laureate who has been under house arrest or similar forms of detention for over a decade.

A group of anti-communists including former president Vaclav Havel have called on Czechs to go to the polls in ten days' time. They say many people who did not vote in the 2002 elections would have voted for somebody other than the Communists, and an increased turnout could mean fewer seats for the party, who are currently third in the opinion polls. Mr Havel and a number of other personalities will appear in a series of photographs with their heads wrapped in barbed wire.

This week the people of Prague have a chance to hear Frank Zappa's music, thanks to the efforts of the American rock musician's sons, Ahmet and Dweezil. They have organized a European concert tour called "Tour de Frank", and are performing in honour of their father, who died in 1993. There is a special connection between Frank Zappa and the Czech Republic. Zappa's music belongs to a repertoire once-banned by the communist censors, and Frank Zappa himself gained huge acclaim in Prague following the Velvet Revolution.