News

Last year’s doubles champions at the French Open, Leander Paes of India and Czech partner Luáš Dlouhý (seeded 3rd) will have a chance to defend their title later on Saturday against Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia (seeded 2nd). In their semi-final earlier, Paes and Dlouhý made short work of opponents Julian Knowle of Austria and Andy Ram of Israel in straight sets. The match took just 75 minutes and final score was 6:4, 6:2.

Acting Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka said following a meeting with the president on Friday that he was disappointed by Mr. Klaus’ decision which differs from the constitutional practice observed in the Czech Republic to date. Mr. Sobotka said that his party was open to further coalition talks and would be ready to get involved should the Civic Democrat leader fail to form a centre-right cabinet.

President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Jan Fischer have jointly criticized the law on national unity recently approved by the Hungarian Parliament. In a joint statement the Czech leaders say that the law belittles the Trianon treaty, which is one of the fundamental agreements establishing the present day European order, and argue that putting it to question may fuel extremism and revive old rivalries in Europe.

The Trianon treaty determined borders in central Europe after WWI. Hungary, part of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire, lost a major part of its territory, including Slovakia, which united with the Czech lands to establish independent Czechoslovakia in 1918. Many Hungarians still consider the Trianon agreement a wrong inflicted on their country.

Late last month, the Hungarian Parliament passed the law on national unity, establishing June 4th, the day on which the Trianon treaty was signed, as a day of national unity. The country also recently passed a dual citizenship law, escalating fears that it wanted to push for some form of regional autonomy for its minorities in neighbouring states.

A clean-up operation is underway in the north-eastern parts of the country where floods killed two people this week. Although some towns remain on flood alert water levels have been going down and meteorologists predict dry and sunny weather over the weekend. Some areas have been flooded twice within the space of a fortnight, leaving hundreds of families displaced. Fire crews have been working around the clock pumping water from cellars and aid workers have been distributing basic necessities. Psychologists are on hand to help people cope with the calamity.