Czech Republic

Emil Synu lives amid the crumbling castles of a once-great empire and considers himself, at least for now, one lucky Gypsy: He hasn't been beaten, set on fire, or chased into a river and drowned. But each day that he opens his door, Synu said, he becomes a target for neo-Nazis and skinheads staging a campaign of fear that has shaken a nation known for its peace and its poet president. Synu even fondly remembers the oppressive days of communism when Eastern Europe's centuries-old ethnic hatreds were muffled by the state.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Russians are back. Twenty years after Soviet troops left to the delight of a liberated nation, Russian schools, businesses, newspapers, and communities are thriving in and around Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. But while many Czechs seem to be leaving decades of bad blood behind them, there's alarm in Russia at the economic impact of a new wave of middle-class emigration to Eastern Europe, where life seems far simpler and where European Union membership brings dynamism.

Small and mid-size U.S. businesses may have a chance for a new export market: the Czech Republic, a Commerce Department official says. Although business opportunities there are good generally, they are especially abundant now because of last August's flooding, the worst to hit Central Europe in 500 years, said Richard Steffens, counselor in Prague for the U.S. Commercial Service. "The Czech Republic estimates that up to $5 billion in damage was done," and cleanup services at hazardous waste sites are particularly needed, Steffens said.

Smart shopping follows the old business dictum: Location, location, location. And smart entrepreneurs are following that dictum as they shop all through Europe for the best places to start a new business. Europe has become EuroMart. EuroMart covers a lot of territory, and it often stocks its best buys in the corners and at the edges, along the aisles marked "Privatization 'R Us," "European Union Wanna-bes" and "Hot Spots. " Over on Aisle 1, we have Hungary. Budapest did a land-office business over the last decade in selling off its state-owned enterprises to foreign investors.

A group of Iraqi politicians came here this month to learn how to build a democratic state from the ashes of totalitarianism. The Czechs know a thing or two about this tricky business - all the better to provide the cautionary tales for those who must try to grow something so fragile as democracy in the violence and chaos of Iraq. Better even than going to learn in America, where democracy has been around a long time and where how it all began is found in history books. Sallama al-Khafaji, an independent member of the interim Iraqi National Assembly, was impressed with what she saw at polling sites as the citizens of the Czech Republic cast ballots in parliamentary voting.

He does not speak a word of English. He has never heard of a cheesesteak. And he does not know the Liberty Bell from Taco Bell. But he might lead the Flyers to the Stanley Cup. Jiri Dopita (YEAR-ee DO-pita), who joined the Flyers last week for the opening of training camp, has been widely considered the best non-NHL player in the world for nearly a decade, although he is virtually unknown in America. In June he signed a two-year deal with the Flyers, a team already stacked at center with Keith Primeau and free-agent addition Jeremy Roenick.

West Chester East coach Nick Russo has a highlight video of last season, bits and pieces of the Vikings' play as they won the Division AAA title of the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League. One snippet shows the Vikings shaking hands with players from a team called Sparta Praha. The Czech Republic club, invited over for a Christmas tournament at Ice Line, dominated all the local teams. And there, shaking Russo's hand, is the alternate captain and most dominating player for Sparta Praha, Zdenek Horak.

It's a long way from the town square in Telc in the Czech Republic to the Oakbourne mansion in Westtown Township. But for Jan Simek, 18, an exchange student with the West Chester Rotary Club, there are similarities. Namely, beautiful architecture. Telc is a town of Baroque and Renaissance-style buildings, while Oakbourne's towers and ornamental copper gables glitter in Victorian majesty. But while Telc may give Simek an artistic high, Oakbourne is helping him make money. "In America there are many opportunities," said Simek.

Not 10 years ago, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia were members in good standing of the Soviet bloc. Their communist generals swore allegiance to Moscow and opposition to the NATO alliance. A few months from now, in a sign of Europe's crawl to unity, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are likely to be offered full membership in the 16-nation NATO military force they once opposed with tanks and troops. This shift in loyalties is one of the most significant and delicate questions faced by President Clinton and his new foreign-policy team.

1. f. Russia. 2. h. Sweden. 3. d. Italy. 4. i. Wales. 5. c. India. 6. j. West Indies. 7. g. Spain. 8. b. France. 9. e. Mexico. 10. a. Czech Republic.

1. f. Russia. 2. h. Sweden. 3. d. Italy. 4. i. Wales. 5. c. India. 6. j. West Indies. 7. g. Spain. 8. b. France. 9. e. Mexico. 10. a. Czech Republic.

While reflecting on this weekend's festivities in honor of St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, see if you can match up other nations and their patron saints. (In some cases, the saint listed is just one of a country's patron saints.) 1. St. Basil the Great. 2. St. Bridget. 3. St. Catherine of Siena. 4. St. David. 5. St. Francis Xavier. 6. St. Gertrude. 7. St. James the Greater. 8. St. Joan of Arc. 9. Our Lady of Guadalupe. 10. St. Wenceslas.

BUCHAREST, Romania - More than 650 people have died during a record-breaking cold snap in Eastern Europe, authorities said Wednesday, as officials in the Czech Republic blamed two huge car crashes on blinding snow. Since the end of January, the region has been pummeled by the deep freeze, which has brought the heaviest blizzards in recent memory. Tens of thousands have been trapped in often-freezing homes and villages by walls of snow and unpassable roads, and officials have struggled to reach the vulnerable with emergency food airlifts.

BRNO, Czech Republic - It was completed in 1930, a Modernist masterpiece by legendary German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. But Villa Tugendhat's early history was rocked by the turbulence of the 20th century: The Nazis seized it, then came World War II bombardments that smashed its windows. When the Soviet troops liberated Czechoslovakia, living space became a large stable. It has languished in disrepair ever since. Now, a two-year, $9 million renovation is almost complete.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Churches were seized, priests jailed or executed, and those who were still allowed to lead religious services did so under the watchful eye of the secret police. More than 22 years after the fall of communism, the Czech government agreed Wednesday to pay billions of dollars in compensation for property seized by the former totalitarian regime. The deal threatened to topple the current coalition government earlier this week after a junior partner voiced anger at the thought of huge sums being paid to churches in the middle of the European debt crisis.

DALLAS - They are just two letters, a "V" and "H," together on the back of his helmet. They sit inconspicuously across from the NHL shield that is stuck on every dome in the league. The letters, worn by Flyers forwards Jaromir Jagr and Jakub Voracek, are the initials of Vaclav Havel, the former Czech Republic president who died Sunday. And they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Jagr, still his country's biggest pop-culture icon, is not just paying homage to the life of a courageous defender of freedom as his civic duty.

Vaclav Havel, 75, the writer and dissident whose eloquent dissections of communist rule helped to destroy it in revolutions that brought down the Berlin Wall and swept Mr. Havel himself into power, died in the Czech Republic on Sunday. A Czech Embassy spokesman in Paris, Michal Dvorak, said in a statement that Mr. Havel, a heavy smoker for decades who almost died during surgery for lung cancer in 1996, had been suffering from severe respiratory ailments since the spring. "His peaceful resistance shook the foundations of an empire, exposed the emptiness of a repressive ideology, and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon," President Obama said Sunday.

Zdenek Miler, 90, who was inspired to create a cartoon character in the 1950s after stumbling over a molehill in woods west of Prague, died Wednesday at a nursing home in Nova Ves pod Plesi, Czech Republic. Mr. Miler, whose animated Little Mole character enchanted millions of children around the world and even made it into space on a NASA shuttle, also illustrated a number of children's books. The very first episode titled "How the Mole got his Trousers," was an immediate hit, winning the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.

Karel Hubacek, 87, an architect whose bold hyperboloid design for an elegant mountaintop hotel was named the most significant Czech building of the 20th century, has died. Liberec City Hall in the Czech Republic's north - where Mr. Hubacek lived and designed his tower building - announced his death in a statement Wednesday. The building, whose silhouette has become the symbol of the city, was completed in 1973. Mr. Hubacek was awarded the prestigious Auguste Perret Prize by the International Union of Architects in 1969 for the design.

Jaromir Jagr doesn't remember posing for the photo. It was 17 years ago, when he was 22 and already one of the best hockey players in the world. The NHL was in the midst of a work stoppage at the time, and Jagr, then with the Pittsburgh Penguins, had returned to his hometown of Kladno, Czech Republic, where adoring fans greeted him. How many photos did Jagr take with those admirers back then? How many hands did he shake? How many kids did he meet who dreamed that they were No. 68? But what was trivial to Jagr became a talisman to the other person who appears in the picture: a then-5-year-old who also grew up in Kladno, an industrial town of around 70,000 about 17 miles west of Prague.