Magazine Magazine

Women have trouble getting a good nights sleep because they are plagued by family problems or their partner's snoring: a conclusion reached by specialists who met in Prague for this week's congress of the European Sleep Association. A high number of women allegedly complain of sleeping poorly but research workers were surprised to find that during laboratory tests many of them slept very soundly indeed. "Women find it harder to let go of worries and family problems when settling down to sleep" - Finnish doctor Tarja Heiskanen told delegates to the congress. "They worry about children, relatives, their work or wait for their kids to get home from the disco before dropping off to sleep. And although many are kept awake by their partner's snoring they prefer to suffer the inconvenience rather than move to a different room. Sharing a bedroom is still perceived as a symbol of a functioning marriage and women who have a separate bedroom often feel guilty," dr. Heiskanen said. Sleep specialists at the Prague congress warned against underestimating the importance of a good nights sleep, saying that fatigue was as much of a risk for drivers as alcohol. A third of all accidents are allegedly to blame for it.

Are you unable to resist the mouth-watering smell of fresh rolls? In that case try to keep a clean criminal record. The police have just reported a case in which they caught a long-wanted criminal thanks to his addiction to fresh rolls. The twenty nine year old man spent months hiding out in a shack in the forest and would most likely have gone undetected had he been able to resist the craving for fresh rolls. He would occasionally emerge at 5 am in the morning when bakers vans would leave their deliveries in the backyards of shops and supermarkets - and he would steal a few rolls from the crates before they were taken inside. He would only steal a few so many owners didn't even bother to report them missing -until employees noticed the morning visitor and alerted the police. The first attempt to detain him failed - the police officer who spent the night hiding in the backyard was so cramped from the night's vigil he couldn't catch up with the thief when he dashed off. But the craving for crisp rolls was too strong and the next time - they got him.

Eva Herzigova, photo: www.celebritywonder.com Czech supermodel Eva Herzigova unveiled her first clothing collection in Paris on Tuesday. Dubbed the Marylin Monroe of the East, Herzigova made her name with sexy advertising campaigns for Wonderbra and GUESS? jeans. She launched the Herzigova label with a swimwear line a year ago and has now expanded into clothing and shoes. Her fans can look forward to a lot more - if her plans work out they should be able to buy bags, sunglasses and body products in the not too distant future - and who knows - maybe even a perfume called Eva...

Former East Germans in front of the trabi on feet, photo: CTK Former East Germans who 15 years ago fled to the West via the then West German embassy in Prague returned to the site of the drama this week -to mark 15 years of freedom. The exodus of over 4,000 East Germans who camped out on the grounds of the West German embassy in Prague for weeks until the authorities gave them free passage to the West is one of the memorable events that preceded the fall of the Iron Curtain. All over Prague there were abandoned German trabis /an east German car / - which remain a symbol of those times - and many German visitors this week were delighted to find an old trabi in the embassy gardens - somewhat transformed by an artist to document its role in the flight to freedom. The trabi on feet is a permanent exhibit.

An estimated 58 percent of Czech children use the Internet on a regular basis. These latest statistics published by the European Commission place the Czech Republic above average on the European scale. However in many cases this is thanks to the fact that the Internet is available in schools. The existence of many internet cafes in the newcomer EU states shows that for many families in this part of the world an internet connection remains something of a luxury. Only a third of Czech children have access to the Internet at home. Ten percent said they go to internet cafes. The rest take turns on available computers at school.

White rhino, photo: Zoo Dvur Kralove Najin - a precious northern white rhino living in captivity in the Dvur Kralove Zoo in east Bohemia has been getting a lot of attention recently. The northern white rhino is a highly endangered species. There are just 30 of them living in Congo's Garamba National park and another ten in captivity. One of them is Najin and she is currently the only northern white rhino in captivity considered capable of breeding. Some time ago German scientists successfully inseminated a southern white rhino -of which there are an estimated 11 thousand still living. Lulu, a 24 year old southern white rhino housed at Budapest Zoo is now five months pregnant -and since all is going according to plan /the gestation period of a rhino is 18 months / the breeding specialists planned to turn their attention to Najin here in the Czech Republic. Najin must have got wind of their plans because even though white rhinos rarely breed in captivity she went about it the natural way. "We are delighted and we hope there's a baby on the way," the zoo said, adding that it had sent the German breeding specialists a telegram saying that their services were no longer needed.

Signing priest, photo: www.novatv.cz The city hall in Brno, Moravia is considering introducing a new directive against noise pollution near public institutions. The reason is that the maternity clinic in Brno has - for a year and a half - been disturbed by a certain priest who has been singing psalms non-stop, day in day out outside the clinic in an effort to get abortions banned. The sound of his singing is pretty dreadful according to the clinic's patients who have had to keep their windows closed all summer in order to get some degree of peace and quiet. Even with closed windows though, the sound of the singing penetrates into the building and patients who only come in for a check up or prescription complain about having to listen to the din while they sit in the waiting room. The clinic's management has received numerous complaints and so has the town hall but the priest refuses to move or keep quiet. He says he'll stay right where he is until he has achieved his goal: a complete ban on abortions in the Czech Republic.