Archive of articles - June 1999, page 3

Aréna mimes play for refugees refrefugeescamps

Mime actors from the International Institute for Movement in Bratislava, also known as the Aréna Theatre, recently returned from a 10-day visit to the Kosovar Albanian refugee camps in Macedonia, where they held performances for the refugees.The trip, which lasted from May 21 to May 31, was called "We play for Kosovo Children" and was sponsored by the theatre company as well as by UNICEF. Twelve international mime artists from Slovakia, France, Germany and Austria travelled to the camps, along with two Slovak students from Trnava's University of Saint Cyril and Methodus, who prepared a documentary about the experience.

Ukraine mafia on rise - Minister

A mafia group from the Ukraine, known as 'The Syndicate,' is spreading its tendrils across the world and is already well-established in neighbouring countries like Slovakia, Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner claimed at a press conference on June 7.Pittner reported that Slovak border police had stopped a car carrying an undisclosed number of Ukrainian nationals on Slovak soil on May 20. In the trunk of the car, he said, were discovered three boxes of files proving the extent to which the Ukraine mafia had infiltrated Slovak political and economic structures."The first of these boxes [discovered in the car] contained downloaded Internet documents, including the FNM's [Slovak state privatisation agency's] list of privatised firms," Pittner said. "In the second were the names of attractive Slovak firms like Baňa Zahorie [Zahorie Mines] and so on, and in the third, we found written in Cyrillic [the Ukrainian alphabet] the names of people like HZDS party deputy Peter Baco, his son-in-law, a certain singer and so on."

Afe Metal plans to invest one billion Sk in Martinmetal over 6-8 years

Letter to the Editor: Bus behaviour not so bad

Quote of the Week

Minister fights back in GSM 1800 furore

The second tender to find a third mobile telephone operator for Slovakia dissolved in confusion and recriminations on June 7 when Telecom Minister Gabriel Palacka cancelled the tender commission formed on June 15 to select a winner. The sale of the license to operate a GSM 1800 MHz mobile network was expected to bring over 300 million Slovak crowns ($7 million) into the state budget.Palacka now has the power to decide himself who, if anyone, will be awarded the license to operate on the GSM 1800 frequency in Slovakia. The nation already has two firms, EuroTel and Globtel, active on the Slovak mobile phone market using the GSM 900 frequency.

Arranging of Globtel stake sale negotiated with Credit Suisse

Bamboo Garden:Aggressive addition to Chinese restaurant scene

From the moment you walk into the new Bamboo Garden (Bambusová záhrada) Chinese restaurant, ideally located just off the main square in Bratislava's Old Town Square, you can tell the place is determined to be a serious competitor in the city's blossoming Chinese restaurant war. An artfully constructed waterfall cascades past plastic plants and pandas, leading you into an exotically decorated basement hideaway with over 100 seats. From the thick menu to the free Chinese trinkets at the end of the meal, the Garden is poised to become one of the city's Asian best bets.Friendly, helpful, English or Slovak-speaking staff also play a part. While reading the menu in Slovak, English or German, you can sit at nice tables on chairs made from bamboo wood with bamboo-leaf motifs and drink jasmine tea served in dark ceramic tea settings. The walls are hung with mirrors and Chinese calligraphy brushes, and more fake plants and huge Chinese style vases complete the picture. Spacious round tables with rotating "Lazy Susans" in the center are a big plus for large parties wanting to eat family-style.

Pilot and bystander killed in airshow crash

A top British test pilot and father of three young sons was killed Sunday, June 6 when his aircraft crashed during an air show at Milan Rastislav Stefanik airport in Bratislava. A 35-year-old woman watching the show from a restricted area on the airfield was also killed.The crash took place at 12:45 on the second day of the fifth international SIAD '99 air show, sponsored by the Slovak Ministry of Defence. Fifteen countries, including Slovakia, flew a variety of acrobatic manoeuvres during the show.Pilot Graham Wardell, 45, died instantly when he failed to pull his British Aerospace Hawk 200 out of a low turn minutes before the end of his performance. The plane hit the ground and exploded, transforming into a ball of fire which skipped along the ground several times and finally roared to a halt 200 meters from the place of the first impact, SIAD director Lt General Stefan Gombak said.

New VSŽ Chairman cheered by "economic results"

Vladimír Repčák, 55, was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors at the eastern Slovak steel maker VSŽ on June 7. Formerly VSŽ Vice President for Finance, Repčák also served more than 14 years with metallurgy firm ZVL Prešov.The Slovak Spectator spoke with Repčák on June 9 about his recent appointment.The Slovak Spectator (TSS): What were the results of the latest (June 6) government talks on VSŽ?

NATO wants more Slovak troops in Balkans

With a peace agreement in the Balkans underway, between 40 and 110 Slovak servicemen may be headed to Kosovo to help with the de-mining and rebuilding of the war-torn region, Slovak officials reported.But the cash-strapped Slovak government has said they may only be able to send the extra manpower if international alliances pay for the costs involved.Defence Minister Pavol Kanis, when contacted by The Spectator, said that under UN leadership and cost-coverage, Slovak soldiers would definitely take part in the mission.

International film festival comes to quaint Trenčianske Teplice

Anyone who has lived in Slovakia for a while will realize that the country has a lot of film lovers. Film clubs in Bratislava and other cities show a wide selection of movies from countries all over the world.The problem for non-Slovak speakers, of course, is that these movies are often in a third-language they don't understand, subtitled only in Slovak or Czech. But the frustration is over: at least for a while. This weekend in Trenčianske Teplice, a mere hour and a half from Bratislava, an international art film festival of surprising stature and renown is about to turn the lovely spa village Vladimír Mečiar calls home into Slovakia's own Cannes. And did we mention: every film is subtitled in Slovak and English.

Bardejov: A sparkling medieval splendour awaits

Every traveler dreams of "discovering" an unknown jewel, of going somewhere with modest expectations and being bowled over by the glorious reality of a setting, a city, a range of mountains.Bardejov, a town of 33,000 in Slovakia's far east, is just such a destination.For all its remoteness, the Bardejov area offers a variety of sights unparalleled in Slovakia. Bardejov, besides possessing Slovakia's best preserved medieval town square, boasts awe-inspiring churches, 14th century fortification walls with bastions, and Slovakia's only icon museum. In 1986, the town was awarded the UNESCO Gold Medal for Monument Preservation.

Private television market to be joined by new faces

The Slovak private television market will expand in the next millennium when the two major channels, TV Markíza and VTV Cable, are joined by TV Luna, a new nation-wide cable station. But despite the big ambitions of all three competitors-to-be, the stations' officials and media experts say that the Slovak advertising market is too small to feed three stations of a similar orientation.Luna was originally supposed to start broadcasting in July, but WN Danubius, the company which holds the license, appealed to the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting last week for a delay of the broadcast starting date. The council accepted Luna's appeal and postponed the launch until January 1, 2000.

State to shut back door to broadcasting licence

In an attempt to limit just anyone with money from being able to buy and operate a television or radio station, parliamentary deputies have decided to amend the state legislation which regulates who can purchase and operate electronic media.The impetus for the legislation change was the April sale of the troubled VTV Cable television to the previously unknown Satel Media company. By purchasing the station, Satel became the owner of not only the VTV name, but also its right to broadcast, a license which generally takes months and many mid-stream approvals to receive. VTV's competitors and some politicians charged that it could be dangerous to simply hand over the license along with the station.

Černák sees utility sales by mid-2000

Slovakia hopes to offer stakes in its power distribution and fixed-line telecommunications utilities by the middle of 2000, Economy Minister Ľudovít Černák said on June 8.Černák, in London on an official visit, said the government hoped to complete a blueprint for restructuring the electricity sector by the end of July, converting the three existing state-run distribution firms into shareholder companies."We will offer stakes to foreign investors within the first half of next year," he told reporters, adding that the national power grid would remain in government hands. He did not say what the size of the stakes would be.

Hamzik: Slovakia is considering visas for Ukrainians and Russians

Slovakia's schools drowning in almost 600 million in debt

Slovnaft posts January to March 697 million Sk loss