By Daniela Lazarova

Czech writer Ludvik Vaculik created quite a stir with his announcement that he was sick and tired of reading about fraud and illegal financial machinations, and that until the authorities had managed to recover at least one of the stolen millions he was not paying a single haler in taxes. Fearing that this might set off an avalanche of non-payers, RESPEKT has featured a three page article by a university professor of philosophy, who leaning on the wisdom of Kant and Socrates struggles to explain to the disgruntled reader just why this form of protest is highly immoral.

The enraged novelist in question might feel better for taking a stroll along the first floor of the Pankrac jailhouse, which at present is said to resemble a financiers symposium more than anything else. The inmates are all financial experts par excellence - the general director and of IPB Bank and his deputy , the director of Motoinvest, and the deputy chairman of the executive board of Agrobanka. They are all accused of fraud , as is the latest arrival to this strange company Belgian financier Jean Claude van Gansen. They are all said to have been most relieved to find someone of their own rank to talk to and the days are spent in financial discussions. The strange effect is further heightened by the fact that they do not have to wear prison garb and can lounge around in reasuring white collars. The joke bandied around Prague is that they are in the process of establishing a new bank in their cell. Hence the title of TYDEN'S three page report : The Grand Bank Merger in Pankrac. Since, according to an investigator quoted in Tyden, the process of unravelling the case of the IPB bank would take a very long time indeed the esteemed gentlemen could be forgiven for embarking on new plans for the future. Tyden notes that President Havel's reaction to the news was " I hope the police know what they are doing". Having said that, Havel added that he was pleased that the gentlemen's high position in society had not stopped the police in doing what they considered to be their duty.

Colourful as that story is, TYDEN'S photo of the week is not of the bankers in their new abode - but of the one piece of good news which warmed Czechs' hearts this past week - the Czech bronze medal at the World Ice Hockey Championships. And inevitably, the photo of the week does not capture Czechs popping champagne -it shows the height of the brawl initiated by the Canadian team when some of its players failed to accept their imminent defeat at Czech hands. We have heard often enough that our team lost a match because of uneven ice, a biased referee or bad luck, says Michal Ruzicka of TYDEN. This time round we can be proud of them. They made no fuss - even if they were entitled to - and did their best. They came across as generous and dignified - unlike their Canadian opponents. The fact that the international commission chose to punish both aggressor and victim in that brawl by equal measure - need no longer rankle except for one thing: it is an unfortunate message to losers, Ruzicka says.

And finally - the PRAGUE POST has the latest in health and beauty treatment. Radon or radon gas was always a bad news word, feared by those whose family members had worked in mines or those who happened to be living in a radon infested area. Residents of contaminated old houses who could not afford to move out were told to air the place as much as possible and get their wells checked. The common result of inhaling or drinking high levels of radon is lung cancer. Well in our times - you can get almost anything working for you and that includes radon. The Svornost Uranium mine tunnels - the one time hell hole for 45,000 political prisoners -now provides the elixir of life for thousands of elderly Czech and German patients who are treated in the world's first radon spa for arthritis and joint disorders. Specialists claim that radon is like sleeping pills -taken in the right amount they help, while an overdose can kill. So the good side of radon is that it call allegedly stimulate cell activity, relieve pain and lessen reliance on medication. It is said to be unique in treating immobility and nervous disorders. And the last word out on the subject is that the people who work at the radon spa all look conspicuously younger than their years. As the PRAGUE POST puts it " a little radiation can go a long way".