CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC Faculty of Social Science of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic e-mail: CAROLINA@cuni.cz tel: (+42 2) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+42 2) 24810987 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 162, Friday, June 2, 1995. EVENTS FOR THE WEEK MAY 24-31, 1995 Central European Presidents Plant Oak Tree for Unity Last weekend President Vaclav Havel took part in the third gathering of Central European heads of state in Kesezthelyi, Hungary, to discuss the problems of Europe and especially the integration of the post-Communist states into the institutional structures of the West. The first gathering - with the heads of state of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia - took place in Salzburg, Austria, in 1993, followed by last year's meeting in the east Bohemian town of Litomysl. This year's event included the president of Italy as well. At the conclusion of the talks, the presidents planted an oak tree dubbed the "Tree of Europe" in the garden of the local chateau. Martina Krizkova/Katerina Rus Rich to Give to Poor Under New Child Support Legislation Starting next year, the wealthiest 5 percent of Czech families who receive child support from the state will lose their benefits, while the poorest families will get an additional 60 to 80 crowns per month, under a law adopted by Parliament May 26. Members of Parliament from the parties in the government coalition voted in favor of the law (100), while opposition deputies (67) opposed it. Czech Parliament has 200 members. While the Communists and the Social Democrats, who backed increased benefits across the board, came up with 27 proposals to amend the law, only two of them were accepted, and neither one addressed the opposition's main objections to the legislation. Under the new law, half of Czech families will receive the same monthly payment as they have up until now, while 25 percent will be getting 170 to 240 crowns less. Also, the level of payments will now be based on families' net income. Stepanka Kucerova/Katerina Rus LSNS Members of Parliament to Go "Independent" Members of the National Liberal Social Party (LSNS) elected Vavrinec Bodenlos their new chairman at the party congress Saturday in Sec u Chrudimi. Bodenlos beat out the previous LSNS leader, Pavel Hirs, by 16 votes. Bodenlos is also president of the Melantrich company. In response to this outcome, Pavel Kulicka, who represents LSNS in Parliament, announced that LSNS deputies would change the name of their parliamentary club to the Club of Independent Deputies, which will continue to be headed by Hirs. LSNS has five representatives in Czech Parliament. Delegates to the congress also adopted a resolution calling for a referendum on reintroducing the death penalty for brutal murders, to be held in conjunction with the 1996 elections to Parliament. Ludek Stanek/Katerina Rus Six Foreigners Perish in Hotel Fire Shortly after 6 p.m. last Friday a fire broke out in Prague's Hotel Olympik. The blaze began in a storage space on the 11th floor and quickly spread to the upper floors of the building. Several firefighting teams arrived on the scene within minutes, but the "chimney effect" caused thick smoke to rise through the building, forcing several guests to climb out on window sills dozens of meters above the ground to escape the suffocating smoke. More than 100 police officers assisted the Prague fire department in dousing the flames. Given the height of the fire, they used a helicopter to get to the roof to rescue guests. At about 10 p.m., the fire was localized, and shortly after it was completely extinguished. Five persons were found dead in the hotel during the fire, while a sixth died on the way to the hospital. A total of 36 people, including three firefighters, received medical care. Most of those injured were released from the hospital after a brief examination. Two woman from the U.S. are still in the Na Homolce hospital in serious condition. Petr Link, a spokesman for the Prague police, told Carolina that the guests who died of suffocation were identified Saturday morning as two Finnish woman, three Belgian women, and one German. The fire destroyed eight floors of the hotel, including equipment and guests' personal property, causing total damages estimated at 15 million crowns. More than 500 of the Olympik's guests were given replacement lodging in other Prague hotels after the fire. Ludek Stanek/Andrea Snyder HaDivadlo Actors Clash With Police in Brno Three actors of the Brno HaDivadlo theater company are being charged with assaulting a public official after a confrontation with the police in Brno last Friday night. The police were responding to a call from a neighbor complaining about noise on the street in front of the Kabinet Muz, where the members of HaDivadlo were celebrating the 100th performance of their musical "Stars on a Willow." Spokesmen for the Brno Police said the three actors called the police officers "cretins," "black pigs" and "Gestapo" before physically assaulting them. "The crowd acted like it was trying to lynch the officers," said police spokesman Vit Cvrcek. Actors Josef Polasek, Hynek Chmelar, Pavel Liska and Jaroslav Ludvik were taken to the police station, and the first three were charged with assault of a public official. Polasek needed 12 stitches at the hospital to sew up a head wound. HaDivadlo Secretary Karel David said the police "hit women and people lying on the street, and beat people who were standing by the wall." David said Polasek suffered his head injury when the police shoved him under a car. The actors say they called the State Police for help, but that the state troopers turned around and drove off when they saw what was happening. HaDivadlo canceled the premiere of "The Death of Hubert Perna," citing injuries sustained by the leading actor in Friday's clash with the police. Jiri Chvojka/Andrea Snyder Doors at Czech Universities Open to Foreigners, Too Charles University's Institute of Language and Professional Preparation in Prague is making it possible for foreign students to prepare for studies at Czech universities by offering courses in the Czech language at centers in the towns of Marianske Lazne, Podebrady, Dobruska, Zahradky and Prague. These centers have been training 185 students in the 1994-95 school year. Ninety-six of these students - for the most part from Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the countries bordering the Persian Gulf - are paying their own way and most of them are preparing for study at the medical school. The other 89 are in the Czech Republic on scholarships from the countries of the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Africa. Muhammad Shah/Andrea Snyder One Fifth of Czech Male Smokers Won't Live to See 70 Due to smoking, 20 out of every 100 Czech men now in their mid 30s will not live to see their 70th birthday, according to Richard Peto, a professor at Oxford University. Peto was in Prague this week for the third annual Central European conference on the treatment of lung cancer, which ended Wednesday, the World Health Organization's Day Without Tobacco. According to Peto, more people, percentage-wise, die of lung cancer in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland than anywhere else in the world. Six thousand cases of lung cancer are discovered in the Czech Republic each year, causing 5,000 deaths. While 120,000 Czechs are giving up smoking every year, nearly 48 percent of Czech men and 30 percent of Czech women still smoke. As a whole, the Czech Republic consumes around 20 billion cigarettes annually, said Alexander Sir of the National Center for the Support of Health. Although lung cancer rates are low among Czech women, it is only recently that they have begun to smoke in large numbers, so it stands to reason that there will be a sharp increase in female lung cancer patients after the year 2000, Peto said. He said that in the Czech Republic one-third of doctors and two-fifths of nurses are smokers, equivalent to the situation in Great Britain 40 years ago. Peto dismissed the idea that lung cancer in this country had anything to do with air pollution. Stepanka Kucerova/Andrea Snyder BUSINESS/ECONOMICS Ceska: National Property Fund May Be Endangered National Property Fund (FNM) Chairman Roman Ceska urged President Havel on Tuesday not to sign a legislative amendment that would prevent the Fund from paying for expenses incurred beyond its regular budget, saying it could endanger the FNM and the Czech Republic's privatization process along with it. Parliament adopted the amendment last Friday when it approved the FNM's budget, and Ceska fears it will slow, if not completely stop the progress of privatization and paralyse the operations of the FNM. According to Ceska, the amendment does not allow the FNM to reimburse individuals or firms who work with the FNM, particularly firms that organize auctions of state property. "If (the firms organizing the auctions) take a commission from the sale, they have an interest in making the auction price as high as possible. This increases the earnings for state coffers," Ceska said. The new amendment, he said, only allows the payment of commissions directly from the FNM budget, meaning, "Either we will be constantly exceeding our budget, or we will stop having an interest in selling property at the highest price possible." Tomas Jezek, chairman of Parliament's budget committee and Ceska's predecessor as head of the FNM, believes, however, that the amendment does not change anything in the process of approving and drawing up the Fund's budget. "The budget committee has a routine approach for dealing with the FNM," Jezek said. Jiri Chvojka/Eftychia Damianidou CULTURE Slovak Comedian Finds New Home on Czech Television Milan Markovic appeared last Saturday on Czech Television's Channel 1 in a new program titled "On a Slanted Surface" ("Na sikme plose"), a follow-up to "Evenings" ("Vecery"), his popular comedy show that was dropped from the airwaves in Slovakia after the last parliamentary elections brought a new director to Slovak Television. Markovic's guests in the live broadcast from Prague's Branik Theater were Minister of Transport Jan Strasky and blind athlete Pavla Valnickova. Mirek Langer/Eftychia Damianidou Exhibition of Drawings by Klimt Opens at Prague Castle President Vaclav Havel opened an exhibition of drawings by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt last Wednesday at Prague Castle. Klimt was one of the most important painters of the art nouveau movement. Along with Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, who followed his lead, Klimt is considered one of the founders of modern visual arts in Austria. Under the influence of the symbolists, Klimt created his own style of painting known as the "gold style," a combination of drawing and stylized surfaces, in which he presents all the shapes of the human body then enriches and expands them with decoration, his response to the atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Vienna. Martina Vojtechovska/Eftychia Damianidou SPORTS Partly Cloudy in Soccer League Skies While it is now clear that Bohemians Praha and Svarc Benesov will bow out of the first league in Czech soccer after this season, it remains to be seen which team will take the title. Last week Sparta Praha defeated Ceske Budejovice away from home, as Budejovice had two players expelled from the match and two penalty kicks assessed against them. Slavia, meanwhile, came out on top in Ostrava, in a hard-fought match featuring one goal each by the Knofliceks - one from Ivo of Slavia and one from Lubos of Banik. Sparta, then, continues to lead the standings on points, while the Bohemians will say goodbye to the first league after a stay of 22 years, including a league championship in 1983. Round 27 results: Sparta Praha - Dynamo Ceske Budejovice 4:0, Banik Ostrava - Slavia Praha 1:2, Union Cheb - Slovan Liberec 3:1, Petra Drnovice - Hradec Kralove 5:2, Svarc Benesov - Svit Zlin 0:3, Viktoria Zizkov - Viktoria Plzen 1:1, Sigma Olomouc - Boby Brno 2:1. Mirek Langer/Alex Zucker Golden Stick Goes to Jagr Last week Jaromir Jagr of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins received the "Golden Hockey Stick" as the best player in the Czech Republic. This year was the first time players from teams outside the Czech extra-league were eligible for the award. Goalie Roman Turek of Ceske Budejovice came in second in the balloting, followed by Pavel Pater of Kladno, the extra-league's most productive forward. Rounding out the top five were Jiri Kucera of Lulea, Sweden; and goalies Roman Cechmanek of Vsetin and Dominik Hasek of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. Mirek Langer/Alex Zucker Zelezny and His Javelin Grace Athletics Event in Bratislava Nine thousand spectators turned out for Tuesday's Slovnaft 95 athletics meet to see Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic heave the javelin 90.80 meters, the best throw yet of the year. Sarka Kasparkova leaped 14.38 meters to set a Czech record in the triple jump, but it still was not enough to beat out Galina Chistjaka of Russia. Igor Kovac of Slovakia also set a national record, finishing the 110 meter hurdles in 13.41 seconds. Mirek Langer/Alex Zucker SPORTS IN BRIEF * Martin Dvorak placed fourth in the Goetzis decathlon, while Olympic champion Robert Zmelik returned after an injury to finish 13th. * Prague Dukla fought to fourth place in the final of the athletics Champion's Cup in Algavre, Portugual, while the women of Olymp Praha took third in Paris. * Hockey extra-league champion Vsetin got a new sponsor, Petra cigarettes, replacing Dadak Suchard Jacobs. Mirek Langer/Andrea Snyder WEATHER Summer heat fell on the Czech lands last weekend, only to give way to rain storms on Monday and Tuesday, causing blackouts in much of Prague and in other towns around the country. Jiri Chvojka/Alex Zucker ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. 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