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Tuesday was Europe Day, marking May 9, 1950 when the German-born French politician Robert Schuman made a declaration on the creation of an organised Europe which is now regarded as the beginning of today's European Union. One of the main events around the continent this year was a project called Café d'Europe, in which writers appeared at coffee houses in all the EU's capital.

The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has condemned the police violence in the Belarusian capital Minsk and called on President Alexander Lukashenko to resign from office. Lukashenko was recently elected for a third year term in elections that EU observers said were neither free nor fair. Many people were injured and arrested in the opposition demonstrations which followed. Mr. Havel took a written petition to the Belarusian embassy in Prague on Tuesday but was refused admission.

As the EU called for the immediate release of Belarus opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin, the Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek condemned the use of force against crowds protesting against the results of the recent presidential elections. Mr Paroubek also said the Czech foreign ministry was considering concrete ways of supporting those arrested in the crackdown against demonstrators. Rob Cameron has this report.

Former Czech President and human rights advocate Vaclav Havel has spoken out against the United States' strict visa policy towards the Czech Republic. Mr Havel said the USA was being pedantic and to some extent absurd. Millions of Mexicans cross the border with bags of cocaine and heroin, but the authorities are worried about the Czech student staying too long, Mr Havel told the CTK news agency.

But unlike foreign minister Cyril Svoboda, Mr Havel believes reciprocal measures against US citizens are not necessary. Instead, Czechs should get the word out by openly talking about it, joking about it, and writing about it in papers, such as the New York Times, Mr Havel suggests.

In related news, former president Vaclav Havel is among those expressing support for Belarusian protestors: in a letter sent to the opposition Mr Havel expressed solidarity and a desire for a democratic and free Belarus. Speaking to journalists in Prague on Friday, Mr Havel said it was necessary to limit all official contacts with the country in order to fully isolate the Lukashenko regime.

Just hours ahead of President Putin's arrival, former Czech president Vaclav Havel and several world-renowned statesmen launched an attack on Mr Putin and his policies in a text published in a Czech newspaper. The group, led by Mr Havel and including former UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu, sharply accused Mr Putin of "censorship" of information from Chechnya and called for the world to stop "closing its eyes" to atrocities taking place in Chechnya.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel opposes plans to send a giant neon heart which temporarily adorned Prague Castle to the Afghan capital Kabul, warning that it might cause religious offence, the newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes reported on Saturday. The heart, by artist Jiri David, became a highly visible landmark in the Czech capital at the end of Mr Havel's last term in 2002. The former president's secretary, Jakub Hladik, told the paper that there were indications that the heart could be viewed as a religious symbol and cause conflict. The heart had been bought by the World Development Organisation which came up with the idea of displaying it in Kabul.

This week Rob Cameron's guest is Ivan Havel, younger brother of the Czech Republic's former president Vaclav. While no means as famous as his older sibling, Ivan Havel is an important figure in the Czech academic community, as well as the editor-in-chief of the prestigious science magazine Vesmir. During communism Ivan invited dissidents and academics to his apartment overlooking the River Vltava, meetings at which Vaclav Havel was often present. But Ivan shied away from politics after 1989, choosing instead to stay in the world of science and

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has warned that alienation with Czech politicians is growing and that new faces are needed. Speaking in an interview in Lidove Noviny, Mr Havel said fewer Czechs were bothering to vote and more believed politicians were corrupt.

The former president also criticised the country's approach to China, and admitted to being fascinated by a reality TV show that ended last weekend, though he said he had not voted for any contestant.

Deadline approaching on land-swap deal at proposed $1.2bn Hyundai car plant site; Hourly wages in Czech Republic among the lowest in the OECD; If 'old' EU members keep controls, Czech Republic also will consider labour restrictions against states joining in 2007; Survey shows Czech firms are among Europe's most chronically late payers; Cabinet expected to decide on funding for new Brno medical-research centre this month; Former president Havel weighs in against extending territorial limits on coal mining