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Thursday evening saw ice hockey's New York Rangers open their series against Atlanta in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Rangers got on the board with the first goal coming from star forward Jarmoir Jagr. The Rangers hung on to eventually win 4:3. Curiously, after the game Jagr expressed disappointment he had been the first on his team to score: he suggested it brought him bad luck. He also scored first for the Rangers in the regular season, but then found himself struggling.

Health Minister Tomas Julinek has unveiled his plan to introduce a number of direct payments for healthcare services. The reform proposes a 30-crown fee (about 1.5 USD) for each visit to the doctor's as well as for individual prescriptions. Patients should also pay 60 crowns for each day spent in hospital or a similar facility. According to Minister Julinek, the changes are meant to reduce the number of unnecessary medical examinations, visits to the doctor's and curb the squandering of medicines.

According to statistics, the average Czech sees his or her doctor 13 times a year which is twice the European average. The Czech Republic also leads in the consumption of prescription drugs. According to estimates, drugs worth up to 10 billion crowns are withdrawn from pharmacies every year to be never used by patients. Minister Julinek would like to see the changes in place as of January next year.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, a total of 194,400 foreigners were legally employed in the Czech Republic in March, which is 6,400 more than in the previous month. According to the figures, the number of foreigners working in the Czech Republic grew by 43,000 in the past year, with most people coming from Slovakia and Ukraine. Apart from legally employed foreigners tens of thousands of people from other countries work in the Czech Republic illegally, according to estimates. The number of legally employed foreigners is believed to be growing mainly due to the Czech Republic's EU membership and the country's economic growth.

The coalition government of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Greens wants to open a discussion about direct presidential elections in accordance with their coalition agreement. If the coalition agreed on such a change, it would not yet concern next year's presidential elections. The first elections to be held under the new legislation would be those scheduled for 2013. Under current legislation, the Czech president is elected by both houses of parliament. According to the latest poll by the Mori agency, 88 percent of Czech voters believe that they should elect their president themselves. The poll also showed that 62 percent of respondents would like to see President Vaclav Klaus re-elected next year. The introduction of direct presidential elections was promised by the government of Vladimir Spidla in 2002, but the legislation was not passed at that time.