Archive of articles - June 2002, page 12

Dzurinda to sue Nový Čas

VSŽ stake direct to US Steel?

Mikloš confirms new deficit target

Schools again flooded with applications

Mečiar foils police again

State media debts covered from ST dividends

Irish pub murderer has sentence confirmed

Highways pave route to construction revival

Group threatens bomb attacks in Slovakia

No military barriers to Nato remain

Budget 2003 proposal unveiled

No new EMU members until 2007

Slovakia to close two more EU chapters

Crown at three-year low

FinMin adjusts budget overshoot sums

Top pick: Skinny white kid hits the capital with funk

AN UNKNOWN assailant recently attacked the frontman of British band Jamiroquai, Jay Kay, as he was leaving a London cinema. While the singer was hospitalised, he has returned to the attack himself, bringing his band to rock cities across Europe.Unthinkable without his furry buffalo hat, Kay is leading his Jamiroquai band on tour with their latest album A Funk Oddyssey. The group will stop in Slovakia on June 12 to play the spacious Bratislava Incheba exhibition hall. Kay will also help christen a new album by local band Žena z lesoparku (Woman from the Forest Park), which opens the concert.Kay says he chose the name of his band from the Iroquois language, reflecting his empathy for their displaced status and "earth-aware mentality". Environmental issues laced Jamiroquai's debut album Emergency On Planet Earth. With the four albums that followed Kay's 1992 emergence from London's acid jazz underworld, Jamiroquai is approaching 16 millions copies sold.

Falling Slovak birth rate sets family alarms ringing

WORRIES about the village's falling birth rate in 2000 prompted municipal officials in southern Slovakia's Gbelce to offer parents Sk10,000 ($220) for every newborn child they produced.Although few expected Gbelce's population to spurt after the money was announced, the number of newborns in the village of 2,400 increased from 14 in 1999 to 20 last year, pleasing city officials."The model has been successful, and now a neighbouring village is launching a similar drive, giving parents twice as much as we do," said Gbelce Mayor František Kovács.

Penta Group expands to new profit targets

SHAREHOLDERS in Slovak refinery Slovnaft decided at an annual meeting in late May to allocate more than a quarter of 2001 earnings towards dividends, but it took more than seven hours to reach agreement, as minority owner Penta Group with fellow corporate raiders J&T challenged economic results and successfully blocked statutory changes.Penta Group, a collection of financial speculators operating under a Cyprus-based holding company, has quietly been building up assets and influence in key Slovak industries since acquiring Slovakia's then-largest investment fund, VÚB Kúpon in 1997.

First-time voters favour start-up parties

NEW Slovak parties are visiting schools and courting students in their campaign for first-time voters, one of the most important if unpredictable segments of the electorate.Between 350,000 and 400,000 voters are estimated to have reached 18, Slovakia's age of suffrage, between the last general elections in 1998 and a new national ballot expected to be called for September. The group represents about 10 per cent of eligible Slovak voters.Parties formed since the 1998 elections, such as the non-parliamentary Smer led by Robert Fico, a charismatic 37-year-old lawyer, have been particularly active in cultivating the disaffection the young feel for the older generation of politicians.