Archive of articles - November 2002, page 11

Quote of the Week

Local drug ring busted

Investor: Keep your tax promises

Skinheads booked for fascist offences

Budget deficit on track

New Slovak Music

Reader feedback: C'mon, Michael

Lack of access to information exposed

Slovak Football Association charged

War graves looted in eastern Slovakia

A HERITAGE site commemorating one of the region's bloodiest second world war battles is facing what its curator calls a "threatening" influx of looters searching for war memorabilia in the site's scattered war graves.The so-called Valley of Death area leading from Svidník up to Dukla pass on the Slovak Polish border is one of the country's best known second world war memorial sites. Nearly 100,000 Soviet, Czechoslovak and German soldiers died there in a two-month-long battle at Dukla in autumn 1944 as part of the Soviets' offensive against Adolf Hitler's troops.The vast majority of the bodies were exhumed and given proper burials in war cemeteries shortly after the war. In recent years, however, grave robbers have become interested in the war memorabilia left behind in the old graves. The relics, including soldiers' identification tags and helmets, are sold to local collectors or to Western memorabilia dealers.

Majský no longer Cyprus consul

Personal loans increase

Minister outlines changes to transport, post

SLOVAKIA'S Transport, Post and Telecom Ministry has presented a programme for the next four years that is in line with the cabinet's austerity package and realistically takes into account the condition of the national economy, analysts say.New minister Pavol Prokopovič said that in spite of a reduced state budget for the next year, the ministry would move ahead with highway construction plans but would also address recent losses from Slovakia's railway sector.Restructuring should also come to the country's postal services, as steps to improve quality need to be taken before Slovak Post is privatised.

A large family of Paganinis

WHEN Sándor Jároka, Hungary's most famous Roma soloist of the day, died in 1985, around 1,000 Hungarian Roma musicians gathered at his funeral. After the ceremony finished they began to play. This moment of improvisation inspired them to form the world's largest Roma orchestra - the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra.Over the last 17 years, the 189-member orchestra has become famous across the globe. It holds around 100 concerts a year, and audiences often say it is like listening to 100 Paganinis. Because of the musicians' other commitments, the entire orchestra rarely plays together. Instead the orchestra performs with exactly 100 musicians in each concert.

Sony to double Slovak production

Defining idiocy

Majský to stay behind bars

Jet crash takes one life

Dzurinda travels to Poland