Archive of articles - May 2003, page 2

Czech and Slovak PMs race hand-in-hand

Motorcyclists stage motorway protest

Firms expect pay rises after EU entry

Classy food in a stylish location

Euro rules may be stricter

KDH threatens action over abortions

Khol pays first state visit to Slovakia

Reader feedback: Swedish model allows optional tax payments

Reader feedback: Problem not just limited to Roma

Dead boy found in Rimava river

Nuclear plant denies reports of radiation leak

THE MOCHOVCE nuclear power plant and the country's Nuclear Supervision Office (ÚJD) have denied claims by local Greenpeace activists that the plant's workers were exposed to radiation during an overhaul of one of the plant's reactors at the end of April.Greenpeace Slovakia said on May 15 that about 10 workers in the plant, in western Slovakia, were exposed to radiation. The group said the safety of the employees and the general public was put at risk on April 25 purely because the plant wanted to finish its regular overhaul of the reactor by a given time.Greenpeace says that it has reliable information from a source inside the Mochovce plant that safety was put at risk during the overhaul, which resulted in a temporary halting of the operation of the first reactor due to rising pressure during tests on the unit.

State railway cancels Sk5 billion tender

Supreme Court suspected of breaching law

FORMER Supreme Court chief justice Štefan Harabin may face charges if Slovakia's Attorney General's Office confirms allegations over mismanagement of state funds in the top court.Inspectors with the Slovak Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) recently presented a report that studies the last two years that Harabin led the court, and said there were several inconsistencies and cases of questionable use of state funds at the court.Harabin was chief justice for five years until February 2003. He won the seat again in a December 2002 election, but the vote was thrown into doubt by his only competitor in the race, Justice Sergej Kohút, who argued he was not granted equal running conditions in the elections.

Reader feedback: Costs may outweigh benefits

NATO to employ around 75 Slovaks

Sheepdogs kill shepherd

Multiplace 2: New-media event

Cleared for takeoff?

IN LATE April, Bratislava regional government officials, Vienna city and regional administrators, and the Vienna Airport company announced a European Commission-backed project to link the airports of the neighbouring capitals in a single system ahead of the implementation of the EU's Schengen border in 2006.Once the Schengen agreement is fully in place, the EU's frontier will extend to Slovakia's border with Ukraine, eliminating customs and immigration controls to the west, and greatly increasing the speed of road and rail connections between the Austrian and Slovak capitals."The aim of the [Bratislava] regional government is to increase the number of direct destinations from the Bratislava airport and make it possible for Austrian citizens to fly from there as well," said Roman Filistein, head of Bratislava regional government's transportation commission.

Nine local lines back on track

PASSENGER transport on a number of the 25 local rail lines on which service was cancelled in January will resume in mid-June, but Slovakia's rail companies and unions have still not resolved key issues behind railway workers' three-day strike early this year.Although resuming operations on nine regional routes will cost the ZSSK train operator an estimated Sk50 million (Ř1.2 million) this year, company spokesperson Miloš Čikovský said the routes were chosen in regions with poor transportation networks, and where there were good chances of increasing efficiency."The directors of ZSSK and the Transport Ministry had assured [unions] during the strike that they would take the situation into consideration and would re-evaluate these lines," said Čikovský on May 13.