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A young Czech man who recently visited China has been admitted to Prague Bulovka hospital for fears he may have contracted the SARS disease. Doctors said the hospitalisation was more of a precautionary measure because the 30-year old man had fever but no other symptoms typical for SARS. Around 30 people so far have been taken to hospitals in the Czech Republic for suspcion of SARS but tests did not prove the disease in any of them. More than 500 people have died and thousands contracted the disease worldwide, with the biggest number of cases in China.

The Czech ice hockey team ended fourth at the world ice hockey championships in Helsinki, Finland, losing 2-4 to Slovakia on Saturday. The Czechs, world champions in three of the last four years, lost their chance to fight for another gold on Friday, when they were defeated by Canada 8-4 in the semi-finals.

The Czech police recovered paintings stolen from a museum devoted to one of the country's most famous artists, Josef Lada, and broke up a theft ring. Eight paintings were stolen from the Lada museum in the late artist's hometown of Hrusice, near Prague, in October but only five of them have been recovered. The paintings were found in Prague with a large number of antiques and other valuables stolen from nearly 60 homes, cottages and shops across the country since September.

A poll showing rising support for European Union membership was released on Friday along with a government report promising EU entry would net the country more than 24 billion crowns in the first three years. The polling agency CVVM said its latest survey found 58 per cent of Czech voters would support and 24 per cent oppose next month's binding referendum on EU enlargement. Among voters who said they would definitely cast ballots, the poll found 70 per cent backed enlargement. The Czech government is pushing for a "yes" vote in the mid-June referendum, which is scheduled to follow similar referenda in three other candidate states - Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.