Archive of articles - September 2002, page 12

Schools open under local administration

Who is the HZD? A Mečiar-free HZDS, says analyst

THE MOVEMENT for Democracy (HZD) has emerged quickly as a political force since its July founding, but has done little to distance its politics from those of Vladimír Mečiar's opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party, says a political analyst.While the HZD zoomed in August to seven per cent support in some polls, Mečiar's HZDS tumbled to below 20 per cent for the first time in over a decade, dramatically reshaping the nation's political stage with less than two weeks to go to national elections.However, observers are still scrambling to understand why the HZD was launched, how it differs from the HZDS, and what role it could play after the September 20-21 ballot.

VSŽ probe called off

Slovaks, Russians ink debt deal

What price justice?

THE JUSTICE Ministry has stripped a Bratislava judge of his robes after the justice admitted to accepting an Sk100,000 ($2,300) bribe to levy a soft penalty on a man charged with armed robbery.Only a few days after the case became public, another man came forward to say that the same judge, Igor Š., had requested Sk300,000 ($6,800) from him to deliver a favorable verdict.Another case of alleged bribery against Košice region police corps boss Michal Dunda, in which two businessmen testified Dunda had charged them $1,000 in 1994 to recover stolen trucks, was shelved this past week because the statute of limitations had run out.

US investigating complaints by Slovak summer workers

FOR MANY central European students, a summer of work and travel in the United States is an opportunity to earn money, develop language skills and see the world. For some, however, legal loopholes and unscrupulous operators can turn the experience into one of poverty and desperation.A recruiter for Washington DC area McDonald's restaurants, for example, has recently been fingered by a US senator and the State Department for allegedly gouging Polish and Slovak students through high rent charges and bogus pay deductions. Other students have complained of working without pay, or finding pre-arranged jobs non-existent upon arrival to the US."This is becoming a national scandal," said Les Kuczynski, executive director of the Chicago-based Polish American Congress, whose organisation has received complaints from across the country of students, largely from central Europe, being abused by their employers.

9/11 in Slovakia: More refugees, less heroin

IN THE FALLOUT from terrorist attacks in the US last September, more migrants and less heroin arrived in Slovakia from Afghanistan. Huge security concerns, however, did not engulf the small central European nation."We are not ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack taking place, and the places where these could occur are specially protected," said Interior Ministry spokesman Jozef Sitár."But following the terrorist attacks, we concluded that the likelihood of Slovakia's being attacked is very small, because we are not an interesting country for terrorist organisations."

Train tender cancelled

Wiersma worried by court-bashing over Lexa case

More bribery charges against judge

Korean kicked out for arms trading

Judicial Council can buy pencils

EC negotiator expects Slovak entry success

Markíza gets another fine

Cabinet unworried by budget deficit

Flooding costs Sk1.6 billion

Jewish compensation bill put off

HZDS again in second place

2002 budget tight, 2003 budget questionable