Archive of articles - March 2007, page 8

Smer is Slovakia's most popular party

PM Robert Fico's ruling coalition Smer party remains the most popular party in Slovakia. The latest public opinion poll conducted by the Statistics Office's Institute for Public Opinion Research (ÚVVM) showed that February brought no considerable changes in political parties' popularity compared with the previous month.

Old Town fixture now a bargain for Asian cuisine

IN A MOVE that could be seen as daring, Tokyo Sushi-Bar doesn't have a sushi bar at all. What it does have is an extensive sushi menu, a large and diverse selection of Japanese dishes with a few Thai and Indonesian entries thrown in, an attentive English-speaking staff, reasonable prices and, in summer, a quiet, shaded courtyard in which to enjoy your meal.

SNS wants fewer VÚCs

Investigators sift Nováky ashes for clues to deadly blast

AS TWO of the victims of the Nováky explosion were buried on March 7 and 8, attention focussed on the causes of the blast, which killed three people and left five missing.

"The arrogance of power in the education sector"

The Education Ministry has revealed the principles by which it intends to amend the Universities Act, and to radically change the current balance of power in Slovak universities.Henceforth, the government rather than parliament will issue permission for founding public universities. University senates will be composed of an "adequate" number of members from each faculty, rather than an "identical" number as under the current law, which could lead to dominance by a single faculty.

Culture shorts

Court to decide on SA bankruptcy

Quote of the Week:

Dzurinda calls on government to lower taxes

"There was total chaos" even before explosion, witness says

THE INVESTIGATION into the explosion at the VOP Nováky military facility is continuing in tight secrecy, but details are emerging of a laxity in bomb disposal practices that could have caused the blast.

Slovak bishops support Archbishop Sokol

THE PERMANENT council of Slovakia's Catholic Bishops' Conference (KBS) has come to the defence of Archbishop Ján Sokol of the Bratislava-Trnava diocese.

"At the speed of sound"

The Gripen affair in the Czech Republic invites a number of associations, none of them positive.Coalition SNS party leader Ján Slota's statement that Hercules makes the best cargo transport planes and that Slovakia should buy some, in light of what happened in Prague, looks like a serious stumble for the lobbyists of Lockheed Martin, who haven't yet grasped that just because a man is the leader of a government party in Slovakia, it doesn't mean that he is right in the head.

Football 'big fish' snared

THE SECOND most important man in the Slovak game, Football Association secretary Vladimír Wänke, was arrested on March 6 after allegedly taking a Sk10,000 bribe from a premier league club owner to arrange a player transfer.

Scandal veteran Kavan now advising Fico

SWEDISH investigative journalists made a splash in the Czech Republic recently by airing a TV report featuring Jan Kavan, the former Czech foreign minister and the chairman of the UN General Assembly from 2002 to 2003, breezily describing corruption among top Czech officials.

Slovakia for Slovaks, eh?

French philosopher Albert Camus described Sisyphus, condemned by the Gods to forever roll a stone up a mountain and then see it crash down again, as the absurd hero. "One sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing and the foot wedging the clay-covered mass."

Small offices reign at the workplace

Foreign investors brought the open space layout concept to Slovakia in the nineties. This trend originally came to Western Europe from the United States at the beginning of the seventies.

Around Slovakia

EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE

Nováky most costly industrial accident in Slovak history

THE NOVÁKY explosion was the biggest insurance event in Slovak history, say insurers, with claims expected in the hundreds of millions of crowns, not including any money awarded in possible court settlements.