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Every year the Vize (Vision) 97 Foundation of former Czech president Vaclav Havel and his wife Dagmar presents an award for outstanding work in the world of science. This year's winner is one of the world's best known psychologists, Philip Zimbardo. He is famous for his work on behaviour in prisons, and last year sat on the commission investigating the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers. I spoke to Professor Zimbardo at Tuesday's ceremony, and asked him what it meant to receive this award from Mr Havel.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has been included on a list of 100 names from which readers of the British magazine 'Prospect' and the US magazine 'Foreign Policy' have been asked to choose the world's top five intellectuals. The readers' opinion poll closes October 10 and results will be declared in November. The American linguist and dissident Naom Chomsky is an early favourite to head the list of the top five, with more than 14,000 votes already cast.

Ex president Vaclav Havel and retired South African bishop Desmond Tutu have called for a UN initiative to bring reforms to military-ruled Burma or Myanmar. They say that the situation there is far more serious that in other countries where the Security Council had previously intervened, such as Afghanistan or Rwanda. Mr. Havel and Bishop Desmond Tutu commissioned a special report showing how far the situation in Burma had deteriorated under the present regime and they appealed to the Security Council for immediate multilateral action.

This week Poland marks the 25th anniversary of the strike at the Gdansk shipyard where the Solidarity movement was born. Solidarity served as a beacon of hope to dissidents in the region, and there was close co-operation between Czechoslovak and Polish anti-Communist activists.

Former president Vaclav Havel is the greatest euro-optimist on the Czech political scene today while his successor Vaclav Klaus is the most euro-sceptic; this according to a poll of public perceptions by the STEM agency. Asked to name a pro-European politician, aside from Havel, respondents named three high-profile Social Democrat party members: former prime minister Stanislav Gross, the current man in the job, Jiri Paroubek, and ex-premier Vladimir Spidla, now a European Commissioner. Apart from Klaus, the poll found that people consider Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek and Communist party head Miroslav Gerbenicek the most euro-sceptic Czech politicians.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel and twelve other prominent world figures have signed an open letter calling for the world to end "autocratic" rule in Belarus. In the letter published on Saturday, the signatories accuse President Alexander Lukashenka of routinely violating basic human rights and civic freedoms. They also warn that the last independent daily in the country, Narodnaja Volja, is in danger of being shut down. Apart from Vaclav Havel, signatories to the letter include the Czech senator Karel Schwarzenberg, the Hungarian-born billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. They are calling on the United Nations and world governments to make a united push for democracy in Belarus.

The CzechTek saga continues to stir the usually calm waters of Czech politics in the summer season. Former president Vaclav Havel has now entered the fray, after he was asked to act as mediator between the Czech government and organisers of the techno party which was violently dispersed by riot police at the weekend. But not everyone is happy with the initiative.

In related news, former president Vaclav Havel, who appeared at a rally on Monday to lend his support to the CzechTek partygoers, has offered to act as a mediator between the government and the rave's organisers. Police announced on Tuesday that 10 people have been charged in relation to Saturday's events, most with assaulting a public official. At least two private citizens have filed complaints against the police. Meanwhile, according to a lightning poll conducted for the daily Mlada fronta Dnes, seven out of ten Czechs believe that the police action to shut down CzechTek was 'too severe'. The Czech police used tear gas, stun grenades, batons and water cannons to disperse the CzechTek crowds, whom the government says were trespassing on private property.

The fallout continues from Saturday's crackdown on the CzechTek party in West Bohemia, in which 1,000 riot police dispersed thousands of techno fans with tear gas and water cannon. While politicians argue over the justification for using force, the event is now being discussed up and down the country.

Radio Free Europe, which many Czechs listened to surreptitiously in the Communist era, moved from Munich to Prague in the early 1990s, at the invitation of then president Vaclav Havel. Though security was stepped up at its headquarters after 9/11, Czech politicians say its current location at the top of Wenceslas Square poses a threat to the general population. Now Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has finally found a new, safer location - in a new building in the Prague 10 district of Hagibor.