Czechs seem increasingly unwilling to put their feet up when they reach retirement age. In fact, the percentage of Czechs who receive a pension and keep working is among the highest in the world, according to a new study. What’s more, 60 percent of Czech workers say they too want to remain in employment when they become pensioners.

The Czech Philharmonic kicks off its 2008-2009 season on Friday night with a recital of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 2. It will be conducted at Prague’s Rudolfinum by one of a host of guest conductors filling in while the orchestra waits for the renowned Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal, who takes over in a year’s time. But the philharmonic’s director, Václav Riedlbauch, doesn’t seem too worried about the current lack of a permanent lead. I met him before the grand performance and asked firstly why he’d chosen Mahler for the opening concert:

This week, an exhibition has opened in the town of Cheb of a series of nude photographs of the singer Madonna taken in 1979 before she was famous. The pictures were taken by Czech-born photographer Martin Schreiber, who moved along with his family to New York in the 1950s to avoid communist persecution. When he discovered that he had nude photographs of one of the world’s most famous singers, Martin Schreiber earned limited fame and fortune for himself, selling the pictures to Playboy in the early 1980s. Dominik Jun spoke to him during his visit to the Czech Republic and began by asking him how exactly he ended up in New York:

In this edition of the Arts, we look at this year’s Fresh Film Festival, the Czech Republic’s annual international showcase of movies made by students and debut directors, which was held in Karlovy Vary last week.

During World War II, the political left in Britain and the United States had come to identify itself strongly with the fate of the Czech nation. This was partly a reaction to the shame of Munich in 1938, when Czechoslovakia had been abandoned by her allies, and it was reinforced by the role played by the British miners in launching the Lidice Shall Live movement. This had followed the Nazis’ destruction of the Czech mining village of Lidice in June 1942. In this spirit the president of the British Miners’ Federation Will Lawther, came at the end of 1945 to lay a wreath at the grave of the men of Lidice.

Before he ever picked up a camera, the internationally renowned Czech photographer Antonín Kratochvíl led a colourful life to say the least. After escaping from Czechoslovakia in 1967, he spent time in an Austrian refugee camp, was imprisoned in Sweden and joined the French Foreign Legion, with whom he fought in a war before later deserting. In the second part of an interview conducted at his long-term home in New York, Antonín Kratochvíl discusses, among other things, how his own experiences have shaped his approach to photography.

Antonín Kratochvíl is one of the greatest contemporary Czech photographers. Known for both his celebrity portraits and photojournalism, he is said to have won World Press Photo awards in more categories than anybody else. Much of his work is informed by his own tough experiences, starting with the Communists’ persecution of his family, who owned a photography studio. At his apartment in New York, where he has been living for three decades, I asked Antonín Kratochvíl when he had first begun to feel his family was being treated harshly.

“And I regret some of the recent behaviour that Russia has exhibited, and I’ll be glad to talk about that later including the reduction of oil supplies to Czechoslovakia after they agreed with us on a missile defence system…” That was Republican presidential candidate John McCain talking in New Mexico earlier this summer.

Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech – Radio Prague’s Czech language series in which you can learn idioms through song lyrics. Today, we’ll be listening to a song called Zkamenělý dítě (The Petrified or Stony Child) by the great Czech ‘90s rock band, Lucie. The words to look out for are “pytel blech” - a bag of fleas.

In this week’s edition of Magazine: weddings held under water, chapels by the motorway, renaming rivers, thieves stealing entire bridges, Czech technology helping the disabled use computers and the most absent Czech MP…

In Business News this week: the main Czech trades union body is threatening protests over changes to the labour law – and demanding a pay increase of at least 8 percent; Czech Airlines post a loss but the firm’s chief says things are looking positive; Prague Airport invests in property in order to make itself more attractive to potential buyers when it is privatised; Czech Television is faced with a big bill after failing to pay tax on license fees; and a mobile operator ups the price of its iPhones to prevent foreigners buying them up for resale in their own countries.

In Sports News this Monday: Roger Federer beats Radek Štěpánek in the third round of what has been a disappointing US Open for the Czech Republic; Sparta stay in front in the Czech league after a home win over Viktoria Žižkov; Milan Baroš will be hoping a move to Turkey’s Galatasaray can revive his career; and Czech motorcyclist Lukáš Pešek notches up his best MotoGP finish since moving up to 250 CC.

I always found it quite funny that the main verse of the Czech national anthem, Kde domov můj is not a statement – where my home is, but rather a question, where is my home? It seemed a perfect question for a son of Czech parents who immigrated to Britain before I was born. When I was small, I knew that my parents had come from another country to the one where we lived and where all my friends were from, but often found it difficult to understand.

In Mailbox this week: Insight Central Europe comes to an end; listeners’ response to the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion and Radio Prague’s broadcasts marking the anniversary. Listeners quoted: Roger Tidy, Andrew J Popper, Steven R. Lare, Stephen Hrebenach.

Alcohol and drug-abuse and addiction continue to grow in the Czech Republic, especially among many young people, who, for various reasons turn to drugs and alcohol to escape. All too often, many end up hitting rock bottom, a bitter reality that Monika Plocová knows well. The 42-year-old therapist works with groups of alcoholics and drug addicts at the Bohnice psychiatric hospital, helping them try and beat their addiction.

This August 21st marks 40 years since the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, an invasion meticulously planned by the Soviet Union to crush the period of economic and political reforms known as the Prague Spring. Within hours of late August 20th and early August 21st some 2,000 tanks as well as an estimated 200,000 troops had poured in. It was the beginning of the occupation which changed the course of Czechoslovak history.

The oldest and largest railway yard in Prague is soon to disappear. It will be replaced by a modern development with shops, apartments, offices and all kinds of other facilities as investors are ready to pour money into the area. In this edition of Spotlight, we look at the past and the future of the Bubny railway yard in Prague.