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 STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC School of Social Sciences of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 Czech Republic E-mail address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs Fax: (+422) 231 7391 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 65, Monday, March 8, 1993. ======================================================== We are sorry for late distribution of this issue. Editors ======================================================== FROM LAST WEEK'S EVENTS (February 26-March 2) Boundary with Slovakia is guarded Czech minister of the Interior, Jan Ruml said at his Friday's meeting with Slovakian minister of the Interior, Jozef Tuchyna that the Czech Republic would prefer it if its boundary with Slovakia was guarded. This would require an amendment to the act of the abolishment of visa-duty, and a treaty of establishing new border crosings, and small borderland contacts would have to be signed. According to J. Tuchyna, Slovakia is not interested in creating a fixed boundary, that would be more expensive than just returning refugees back to their starting countries. Inauguration of Slovakian prezident Prezident of the Slovak Republic, Michal Kovac entered his office on Tuesday morning. Czech prezident Vaclav Havel was present at this festive ceremony as one of those invited whereas Czech premier Vaclav Klaus excused for being too busy. Having taken the prezidential vow in the concert hall of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra followed by the Slovak anthem, the prezident gave his inaugurational speech. In the end of the ceremony Michal Kovac participated at a thanksgiving service Te Deum in St. Martin's cathedral in Bratislava. Radical in the head of social democracy Forty-eight years old representative of the so-called radical stream, Milos Zeman was elected the chairman of Czech Social Democratic Party on Sunday's 26th party's congress. In the last round the new chairman was supported by the votes of Young Social Democrats which helped him to go succesfully through the election. The delegates of the congress changed the name of Czechoslovak Social Democracy to Czech Social Democratical Party. To the posts of the vice-chairmen were elected Pavel Novak who refused to cooperate with Zeman, Jaromir Kuca, Petr Moravek, Vaclav Grulich and Petra Buzkova. The Chairman of Honour was elected Jiri Horak. Having been elected, the new chairman expressed his persuasion that the social democracy will get governmental posts not only out of mercy of the current governmental coalition, but thanks to the will of its electorate. He also said that he will strive for creating a so-called realistic bloc and he did not expell a possibility of the rise of a shadow cabinet of the oposition. Personal exchange of money has finished The exchange of unstamped money in detached branches of the Czech National Bank (CNB) and Commercial Bank ended on Sunday, February 28. Now unstamped paper bills can be sent only to detached branches of CNB exclusively via post as a precious registered mail. This mail accompanied with an application for exchange must be addressed to a detached branch of CNB in the place of one's home permanent address. The compensation for unstamped paper notes sent for exchange will be provided by CNB after a check upon the applications by August 9, 1993. A compelling reason necessary for the settlement of the application can be considered a demonstrable long-time stay abroad or in institutions as in the article 2, paragraph 6 of the act of currency separation. Slovakian currency improves In recent days the turist rate of the Slovak crown grew slightly as against the Czech crown. Representatives of Czech Savings Bank, Czechoslovak Commercial Bank and Agrobank explained this by the development of demand and supply. Agrobank is running out of Slovak crowns. The situation is similar in other monetary institutions too. Contrarywise in Slovakia, Czechoslovak Commerical Bank has more supplies of Czech money than formerly. This led to a rate increase of the Slovak crown: Turist rate of the Slovak crown (as of March 1 - Kc for Sk) buy sell Czechoslovak Commercial Bank 94.00 98.00 Czech Savings Bank 91.50 96.50 Agrobanka 86.00 91.00 Bank of Investment 81.00 86.00 Commercial Bank 80.85 84.15 Temelin will not be converted Vice-chairman of Deputy Chamber, Pavel Tollner denied on Monday the information that during his visit to Austria he had talked about the necessity of converting the half-completed Temelin nuclear power station into a steam-gas circle. He said that this in only one of the considered variations. The final decision of the future of Temelin is supposed to be reached at the next governmental session, on March 10 when Minister of Industry, Vladimir Dlouhy will present the cabinet with a pertinent material. Unusual course of flu epidemy While in recent years the flu epidemy lasted no more than two weeks, this year it has been dragging on since the end of January. As of the last week, the number of the sick in Prague rose by thirty per cent (every 17th child is sick). In Moravia even visits in some hospitals were restricted. The relatively best situation is in the mid-Bohemian region where it was not necessary to adopt any measures against the flu epidemy. It is probable that the sinister smog situation in recent days contributed to the infection being spread. Unemployment will rise In January there were 3.01 per cent of the jobless in the Czech Republic. According to the Ministry of Work and Social Affaires the rate of unemployment will climb up to eight per cent at the end of the year. Confidence in Government increases 64 per cent of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic expressed their confidence in the government in February's survey of public opinion. As against the last year this means an increase by 12 per cent. On the contrary, the Czech Parliament is entrusted only by 46 per cent of the inhabitants which is by one per cent less than in December. Money to Slovakia only via Post Bank As of mid-March the contacts of payments with the Slovak Republic will be renewed. Everyone who wants to send money to Slovakia will have to open an account with the Czech Post Bank. Public meals went up in price the most Consumers'prices in the Czech Republic increased in January by 8.5 per cent as against last year's December. Prices for public meals rose by 15.4 and services 12.7 per cent. Cubist Kubista Paintings, pastels, grafic art and drawings of Czech painter Bohumil Kubista (1884-1918) are exhibited in the National Gallery in Valdstejn Palace in Prague till May 30. The last complete exhibition of this classic of the Czech modern painting took place 33 years ago. Charles Univerzity's Doctorates of Honour Academician prof.Dr.Ing. Otto Wichterle, the inventor of nylon and contact lenses, and a holder of Nobel Prize, prof.Dr. Dudley Herschbach were on March 2, in the venerable great hall of Karolinum, awarded the Doctorate of Honour of Siences, honoris causa. SPORT Hockey League Pardubice advanced from play-off having beaten Ceske Budejovice three times. Kosice had done with Olomouc likelywise. The duel of South-Moravian teams was more dramatic - Zlin beat Jihlava as late as in the fifth round. Kladno has played only three regular matches with Poprad with results: 6:2,4:0 and 3:4. The fourth match played in Poprad was due to a mutual fight contumned for Poprad's benefit (5:0). The fifth match was contumned the other way round because the players from under the Tatras did not turn up in Kladno. Thus in the second round of play-off Kladno will encounter Vitkovice, Kosice will play with Trencin, Zlin with Sparta Praha, and Pardubice with Litvinov. Football League Unfavourable weather influenced the second spring's round of the football league. Two matches were defered due to an unfitting field. The other matches were played out with following results: Sparta Praha - Hradec Kralove 2:1, Inter Bratislava - Olomouc 4:1, Presov - Brno 3:0, Vitkovice - Ceske Budejovice 1:0, Dunajska Streda - Ostrava 0:0, Dukla Praha - Bohemians 1:1. The league is still led by Sparta Praha followed by Dunajska Streda, the charter is closed by Bohemians Praha and Trnava. WEATHER Dozens of centimeters of snow gathered last week in the whole republic. In Prague a 25 centimeters high layer caused a calamity. The streets were impassable, transport as well as supply got stuck and skiers even managed to slide down the Wenceslas square. At the beginning of the new week the daily temperature climbed up to 4 or 8 degrees, during the night the thermometer keeps slightly below zero. EXCHANGE RATE OF THE CZECH CROWN buy sell USA 1USD 28.42 29.82 BRD 1DEM 17.15 18.07 BG 1GBP 40.10 43.24 CAN 1CAD 22.40 23.96 FRA 1FRF 5.03 5.35 AUT 1ATS 2.44 2.56 The rates as of March 2, 1993. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Send them please to the address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs To subscribe to CAROLINA you send an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@CSEARN.BITNET. 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