Archive of articles - February 2003, page 2

Slovak firm to build shopping mall near Moscow

Industrial park expansion

Pulp and paper unhappy with strong crown

Shoulder to shoulder

Supreme Court elections in April

Health Ministry: Sterilisations were OK

Investigator: Tapped phonecalls are traded

EU calls for tougher action against bribery

Hrušovský to rerun for KDH chairman

Court rules Harabin reelection unfair

EPIC: Slovakia faces tough task selling nuclear plants

SLOVAKIA has little chance of selling its two nuclear power plants as part of its privatisation of electricity utility Slovenské Elektrárne (SE), a representative from a leading consultancy for privatisation and investments in central and eastern Europe said February 17."The current chances [of selling the nuclear power plants] are almost zero," Peter Goldscheider from the European Privatisation Investment Corporation (EPIC) told the TASR news agency.Goldscheider said that it is unlikely anyone will want to buy SE if the nuclear plants are included in the package, unless the utility is sold to a company already using nuclear power, such as Electricite de France (EdF) or Spain's Iberdrola.

Reader feedback: Capacity controls needed

Martial arts fight their way to Slovakia

FOREIGNERS who studied martial arts in their home country have a few opportunities to continue with it in Slovakia. There are also plenty of classes for beginners.The most popular and most widely taught martial arts in Slovakia are karate and judo (džudo). They were brought to this country in the 1970s and since then clubs have been established in almost every Slovak town.Around 25,000 Slovaks, 70 per cent of whom are children, regularly practice karate, which originally comes from Okinawa.

Hewlett-Packard tender uncertain

Reader feedback: Don't blame others

Businesses unaware of EU consequences

Rajecké Teplice: Aquatic fantasyland

NOT FAR from the northern city of Žilina and the Czech and Polish borders is a place devoted to indulgence on a grand classical scale.Surrounded on all sides by the Malá Fatra mountains, the town of Rajecké Teplice is a disparate collection of buildings scattered beside the river Rajčanka. There's a corner store, a small information office (closed all weekend), a handful of white communist-era hotels, and an ornamental lake. And right in the middle is Aphrodite: an opulent health spa and hotel as incongruous in that sleepy hamlet as its namesake would be digging potatoes in a Slovak kitchen garden.The spa building and several of the town's hotels were acquired by the Miškolci family in 1996, who decided to focus their attentions on making the main spa house as attractive as possible to foreign visitors. And the investment seems to be paying off. The facility now runs at 75 percent capacity, with 7,000 visitors a year, many of them from abroad.

A date with your inner Roman

REMEMBER when you first heard about Roman baths, about how everyone sat around with or without their togas on, shooting the breeze, getting up from time to time to move from the hot pool to the cold plunge and back again? To me it seemed the ultimate decadent pastime, and one more reason why it would have been better to live back then.Then I discovered Sauna World, and realised that in a remote corner of Slovakia the Roman dream is still alive and available to all comers - for a price.Located in the lavish Aphrodite spa house in Rajecké Teplice, Sauna World is a complex of four exotic steam baths and one sauna, each meticulously decorated to reflect a special purpose. Visitors move from one to the other, wrapped in the toga-like white spa sheets common in Slovak thermal baths, chatting to each other or just absorbing the moisture and the alluring aromas.

Hundreds turn out for peace demonstration

ANTI-WAR demonstrators in Bratislava marched in protest against war in Iraq, adding their voices to millions of others in similar protests around the world.The event, attended by around 1,000 people, was organised by the initiative Not In Our Name as part of the international day of anti-war protests February 15.The turnout was tiny compared to similar gatherings in other capital cities, leading some participants to point out the lack of publicity before the event.