Archive of articles - February 2002, page 16

Countrywide Events

BRATISLAVAWESTERN SLOVAKIACENTRAL SLOVAKIAEASTERN SLOVAKIA

IMF recommends tax cops

Seven left in SPP race

Neo-Nazis set warning bells ringing

Despite recent massive police operations against skinhead groups, not enough is being done at government or police level to combat a growing tide of neo-Nazi organisations, human rights activists say.Just weeks before the Interior Ministry plans to release a report on the state of racially motivated crime and neo-Nazism in the country, human rights group People Against Racism (LPO) has said there are as many as 5,000 active neo-Nazis in Slovakia and that the number will grow."This is a big and growing problem and police must devote more resources to dealing with this. Not enough is being done.

Tučný ako prasa: The fat king's regrets

I thought I was being ultra-responsible, dropping into work after a 24-hour journey from Costa Rica, offering to help out the office drudges. Hair even greasier than normal, clothes stained with airplane food and baby drool, beard about a foot too long."Whoaaaah," a colleague said as I stumbled in the door like the Last Survivor. "Put on a little weight, didn't ya?"Less a question than an observation. Try as you might with loose fitting clothes, excess weight (nadváha) is tough to hide. Whether you're plain obese (obézny) simply enormous (mohutný) or just tubby (tuki), Slovakia is an uncomfortable place to be, among all those skinny (štíhly) locals.

Around Slovakia

Drunk hits house, kills sleeping manRobbers drive into jewellery shopFamily drugs operation in troubleMigrants pulled from riverŠtúrovo ambulances in danger

Gazprom may dump Jamal

Slovalco profits shoot up

Rent dodgers paying up

Top Pick: Musketeers and 'markytánky' coming to town

A PARADE of 200 people dressed in historical, folk and carnival costumes will tour the Old Town heart of Bratislava at 15:00 on Saturday, February 9, starting from the intersection of Ventúrska and Panská Streets.Leading the parade, four castle trumpeters will play fanfares, followed by a baroque carriage accompanied by musketeers. Fakirs, fire-eaters, jugglers, folk dancers and theatrical groups will form the rest of the parade.An hour later, the parade will arrive at Main Square, where its individual groups will scatter into the side streets to attract visitors with their own programmes. There'll be live folk, jazz and old-time music and a show by the Journeymanship of Ancient Warriors Arts and Crafts group, Tostabur.

Arthur Bolstein takes Einstein to task

KOŠICE - ALBERT Einstein was an extraordinary man. Arthur Bolstein, according to a former teacher, "is a madman".But he may not be so mad after all. At least one thing is clear: while he is not (yet) in Einstein's league as a scientific mind, Arthur Bolstein is anything but ordinary.Four days a week, the 36-year-old scientist and mathematician is up before dawn running 16 kilometres "through snow, rain, or whatever", capped with an early morning beer. "I do a lot of thinking when I run," he said.

Bratislava second wealthiest region

Schmögnerová, Weiss quit SDĽ

Nato entry to be focus of intense media campaign

AN OLD couple working in a field looks up at a bright sky while a voice in the background murmurs "safety, certainty and peace"."We're thinking of the same thing, we're thinking of Nato," the voice continues, as the couple smiles and a Nato symbol appears in the heavens.This TV spot is already doing the rounds of Slovakia's television stations, and more are in the making. Together with live debates and brief interviews with celebrities stressing the importance of the country's joining Nato, it is the centrepiece of the government's plan to increase support for Alliance membership to over 60 per cent of the adult population before the November Nato expansion summit in Prague.

Investors ignore 10-year tax breaks

PUSHED by foreign investors but slowed by negotiations with the EU, Slovak government officials needed 18 months to push through vital legislation allowing investors to benefit from 10-year tax holidays.Now that the Law on Investment Stimuli suggesting the tax exemption is in force, investment experts say they do not expect any significantly increased inflow of foreign investment in Slovakia in 2002.Unclear explanations of who can qualify for the tax holidays and a cautious investment approach connected with the upcoming parliamentary elections in September are preventing companies from taking advantage of the investment package.

Sky Europe taking off

More SPP follies

June elections:Let's cut to the chase

BY ALL accounts the quality of the country's laws have improved since the pearls produced by the 1994-1998 Vladimír Mečiar government. But you wouldn't know it after listening to the invective of the past week.The main reason that politicians are now ripping into laws they themselves approved is that September elections are approaching. With the fortunes of every government member save the Hungarians in decline, everyone with a party badge is decrying the compromises that have been part of maintaining a wide-spectrum coalition government since 1998. The pretence of unity, like the snows of December, has melted away.The communist SDĽ party now rejects the idea of selling a 49 per cent stake in gas utility SPP. It's late in the day, with bids expected by the end of February, but the SDĽ is sworn to have the privatisation law amended. Apparently, 25 per cent of the firm should be handed to insurer Slovenská poisťovňa, and only 24 per cent sold to an investor, to safeguard Slovak interests.

Yukos signs Transpetrol contract