Summary of newsmakers from the previous day 26. 5. 2005

Don´t forget to submit an application by Thursday

Are you an owner of agricultural land, which has been already lying fallow for a while? You can ask for a subsidy to plant it with trees by the end of May. The money is available through the Operational programme Agriculture, in particular the Afforestation of lands used for other than farming purposes. Financial aid goes to afforestation of lands, which have not been farmed within the past 3 years. In such areas there spread weeds that threaten neighbouring, cultivated lands. The programme will enable to transfer these allotments into ecollogically more acceptable forests.

Small breweries prepare for the peak tourist season

During the peak toursit season small Czech breweries are going to hold more than a hundred of cultural and social events for admirers and lovers of the Czech national drink. It has been reported today by Radek Pavlík from the Czech brewery Černá Hora. According to his information, these events will give an opportunity to taste not only beers, which are produced in small breweries, but also special beers that are brewed exclusively for this occassion and that are attracting more and more admirers nowadays. Beer fans will be able to take advantage of the open days and visit breweries themselves. During the guides and field trips they will be introduced to those who brew beer and told about for instance technologies of beer production.

Damage at millions of crowns due to freeze

Damages at millions of crowns have been recorded by fruit growers after the freezes that stroke at the beginning of the month. Now they have counted the damage, cherry harvest is beyond recovery in some areas and up to 90 per cent. „The total damage is estimated at approximately seven millions of crowns. During the past 4 years it has been a fourth disaster,“ described it František Kratochvíl, a fruit grower from the Agricultural cooperative Liběšice. Three years in a row the harvest in Liběšice cooperative was destroyed by hailstones, now by freezing temperatures. It is the same case for a fruiter, Jiřina Poblová, from Ploskovice.

British scientists warn: Bird flu can kill millions

Every fifth person on the Earth could become ill and millions of people could die if the bird flu virus spread worldwide. Foremost virologists are worried that the next flu pandemy will stimulate a genetically modified bird flu virus, which is now raging in the South-East Asia. There is a risk that 20 per cent of world population will be infected, 30 million people will have to be hospitalized and every fourth person from these hospital patients will die, warn virologists in the latest volume of the British professional journal Nature.