Around Slovakia

Slovak 'Don Quixote' dies
Cut off in mid-protest
Teenager takes life in Satanist suicide
Hooligan stripper arrested
Beer keg bench presser sets new Guinness record

Bratislava
Slovak 'Don Quixote' dies

A MAN who in 1993 offered the Slovak treasury a gift of $500,000 and who in the 1970s organised several press conferences in the US accusing the country's intelligence service of shady dealings died last week at the age of 79.
Jozef Vojtech Kasanický, who liked to call himself J.V.K., was an eccentric native of Martin and honorary president of his own Slovak Democratic Centre Party. He was nicknamed 'the Slovak Don Quixote', and was considered a humorous figure in the country's social and political life.
Remembered for his lavish lifestyle, many plastic surgery operations, as well as his unique suggestions as to how to fix the country's economy, Kasanický proposed that Siberia be privatised by Slovakia.
While Kasanický thrice attempted to become president of the country, he is most remembered for a gift of $500,000 he offered to the Slovak national treasury in 1993 provided that the cabinet accepted his economic doctrine. It did not.
At the age of 70 the hopeful Kasanický married a woman almost 50 years younger than himself.
Kasanický started off as a painter, and lived in the US for 29 years.
In the 1990s Kasanický contacted Microsoft's Bill Gates asking him for money, intending to use it to build houses for the Slovak Roma minority.
Kasanický recently claimed to be working on an autobiography, which he planned to publish in 2003. Although he wished to be shot into space in a shuttle after his death, Kasanický was burned in Bratislava's crematorium.


Malacky
Cut off in mid-protest

A MAN apparently protesting high taxes killed himself with a home-made guillotine in front of the tax office in the town of Malacky in early May.
František, 56, brought a guillotine he had built himself to the site in the early hours, and cut his own head off over a reported Sk40,000 ($800) in unpaid taxes, social insurance dues and penalties.
A note he left attached to the bloody instrument read: "Bureaucrats, I've bungled a few things, but these penalties and taxes would kill a horse. I can't take any more. If there is any part of me which is good, healthy, take it. I don't need a grave, because I wasn't even able to take care of my brother's. Farewell."
His wife, son and two daughters said they had no idea anything was amiss.


Treneín
Teenager takes life in Satanist suicide

THE THIRD Satanist killing in recent Slovak history occurred last week in the city of Treneín with a 16-year-old secondary school student taking his life after an occult ceremony.
Police reported that the body was found on May 16 at a local playground. The suicide first evened the sand, then drew a Satanic circled star, wrote Satan in the sand and then shot himself in the head with a legally-owned gun that he had stolen from his father.
The young man's roommate who attended secondary technical school with him said his friend had started to draw Satanic symbols on his hands six months ago. Police continue to examine the motives for the suicide.
The first known Satanic killing occurred in June 1998 when a man from Vrútky, allegedly acting on a command from Satan, murdered his 78-year-old mother with a knife, then stabbed himself in the back and called the police.
In February 2000 a 22-year-old man burned himself to death in a barrel in Križovany nad Váhom in Trnava region. Several Satanist books were found at the crime scene.


Treneín
Hooligan stripper arrested

TRENEÍN police arrested a drunk female exhibitionist who was smashing glasses in front of the local train station and shouting at passersby while stripping off her clothes in front of the amazed pedestrians.
The 49-year-old woman was taken into police custody on May 21 and tests showed that her blood alcohol level was 1.12 parts per thousand.
Jozef Búranský, a spokesman with the local train police, said that the woman, after sobering up, was charged with hooliganism.


Liptovský Mikuláš
Beer keg bench presser sets new Guinness record


LOCAL Slovak strongman breaks own beer benching record.
photo: TASR

TWO RECORDS are set to be added to the Guinness Book of World Records after the performance of Slovak strongmen Juraj Krajeík and Ján Germánus.
On May 18 Krajeík, a native of Liptovský Mikuláš, managed to improve his old record in bench pressing a 62.5-kilogram 50-litre beer keg 530 times. His old record was 473 presses.
On the same day Germánus, supported by about 500 fans, bench pressed a weight of 285 kilograms, which is a record considering Germánus' weight of 92 kilograms. The strongman said he would like to improve his record to 300 kilograms, but before his next attempt needs to take some time off to relax.


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