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Former Czech President Vaclav Havel has been forced to cancel all engagements for the next 10 days after falling ill with respiratory problems, his spokeswoman said on Thursday. Mr Havel, who is 67, is resting at home and is under the care of his personal physician. His spokeswoman did not say how serious his illness was, but added that Mr Havel had cancelled his programme as a precaution based on his doctor's advice. The playwright, the most prominent symbol of the Czech Republic and its "Velvet Revolution", was elected president after the 1989 overthrow of the Soviet-backed regime. He left his seat at Prague castle last year.

A ceremony was held at the Canadian Official Residence in Prague on Wednesday night, where former president Vaclav Havel received the Honorary Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest honour to be appointed by the country's Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. Mr. Havel is only the third foreigner to receive this prestigious honour, after her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and former South Africa President Nelson Mandela.

For the first time since he stepped down as Czech President, Vaclav Havel has appeared before journalists to comment on the political scene. Speaking in front of a crowd of hand-picked journalists in a downtown café in Prague on Tuesday, the former president talked about more than just Czech events in the past year.

Running alongside the back of the Prague Castle complex is a long, rather featureless street called Jeleni. Those of you who've visited the Castle will probably know it - the 22 tram trundles along Jeleni street, past the pleasant greenery of the Royal Gardens and the Belvedere summer house, and on to a stop called "Prague Castle". But if you stay on the 22, the tram takes you past a long, grey wall on your left, with bushes hanging over the side of it. Believe it or not, this wall, and this stretch of uninspiring road, could become the scene of

On Monday, president Vaclav Klaus signed a law ensuring that former Czech presidents will receive 100,000 crowns per month from the state. Half of the funds are to be used as pension and the other half to cover their office expenses. The only former president concerned by this law is Klaus's predecessor Vaclav Havel. Mr. Havel's office remains active in its international quest for human rights and the former president himself continues to make numerous public appearances - on January 5th of this year he received the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize,

Tony Blair's exoneration by the Hutton inquiry makes front pages on all the Czech dailies today - "Blair triumphs" reads the headline in Mlada Fronta Dnes. Also making headlines: proposals by the opposition Civic Democrats for a "TV tax" to replace the existing licence system, and news that the American company Monsanto has been given the go-ahead to test a new type of genetically-modified corn in the Czech Republic.

At the end of January it will be exactly a year since Vaclav Havel stepped down after thirteen years as president, first of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic. One person who spent a lot of time with Havel during his early days as president just after the fall of communism, is the journalist Jiri Vejvoda, now Czech Radio's chief producer of arts programmes. Here he remembers some of the insights he gained at the time.

There are a variety of stories on Wednesday's front pages, though both PRAVO and MLADA FRONTA DNES lead with Vaclav Havel's early return from Asia. The former president was due to spend three weeks there, but had to abandon the trip after just three days due to breathing problems. Another name in the news is Czech cross-country skier Katerina Neumannova: several papers carry photos of Ms Neumannova, who on Tuesday won her second World Cup race in a row, just six months after having a baby.

The papers have all come out with dramatic headlines today: Terror of letter bombs in the EU, says Mlada Fronta Dnes, reporting on extensive security measures now in force in all EU institutions. Lidove Noviny reports on the outcome of a police investigation according to which the former Czechoslovak foreign minister Jan Masaryk did not commit suicide in 1948 but was murdered by KGB agents. While Pravo has reserved much of its front page for what it calls "a calamity" on Czech roads and airports in the wake of heavy snow.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel is expected to travel to Taiwan this month, after accepting an invitation from its President Chen Shui-bian, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. From January 17-24, Mr Havel, who is also a dedicated human rights activist and a playwright, is scheduled to meet with President Chen, deliver a speech at a forum organised by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, accept an honorary doctorate from National Chengchi University and attend a discussion with Taiwan writers and artists. He will be accompanied by his wife Dagmar.