Archive of articles - June 2011, page 2
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Police find body of missing lawyer
A body found in a bush near Jabloňovce near Levice is, according to information obtained by the Sme daily, the body of Roman Ožvold, lawyer and former head of the board of directors of the state lottery company Tipos. The village is located close to Žemberovce, where the signal of his mobile phone was last registered, Sme wrote in its Wednesday, June 29, issue. The corpse was reported to police on Tuesday afternoon. Police spokesperson Andrea Dobiašová said that the site has been searched but did not officially confirm the identity of the body.
Police cars to get 'Help and Protect' emblems in autumn
Beginning in autumn, police officers in Slovakia will be able to directly read on their cars that their duty is to help and protect people – just in case they forget why they are on duty – stated the Police Corps President, Jaroslav Spišiak, at a news conference on June 27, the SITA newswire reported.
EEA and Norwegian Finance Mechanisms to allocate €80 million to Slovakia
Hundreds of individual projects, 200 subprojects and the setting-up of new partnerships are among the results of the first programming period of the EEA and Norwegian financial mechanisms, the TASR newswire reported.
Mikloš threatens resignation if parliament ties his hands on loan to Greece
Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš said, according to information acquired by the Sme daily, that if parliament restricts his powers on dealing with European mechanisms designed to secure financial reserves to assist member states, he would consider it a show of mistrust and he could simply resign. Sme wrote that Mikloš said this on June 23 at a meeting of coalition parliamentary caucuses and since then additional speculation has surfaced that Mikloš might resign, Sme wrote on June 28.
Poštová Banka reports Slovakia has 2nd-lowest public debt per capita in the eurozone
Slovakia's public debt calculated per capita currently stands at around €5,000, while the average debt in the European Union reaches about €20,000, according to data published in Poštová Banka's Economic Weekly, the TASR newswire reported. "We [Slovakia] are ranked the fifth-best within the EU and the second-best in the eurozone," wrote Poštová Banka, as quoted by TASR. In terms of debt burden per capita, the heaviest debts in the EU are on the backs of the Irish, Belgians and Italians. The public debt exceeds €30,000 per capita in all of these countries while Estonia is on the other end of the scale with public debt of only €710 per capita, TASR wrote. "We [Slovakia] have the lowest per capita debt within the Visegrad Four," stated the review. In Poland it is more than €5,100, in the Czech Republic it is close to €5,400 and in Hungary it is more than €7,800. Even though Slovakia's public debt rose to 41 percent of GDP last year, the country is in the better half of the EU chart in this respect, according to the report. Greece tops the listing with public debt of 140 percent of GDP.
Outcome of Slovakia’s nuclear stress tests to be released in October
Slovakia will learn more about the state of safety at its nuclear power plants at the end of October as the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ÚJD) plans to submit a final report drawn up from the so-called stress tests at that time, the SITA newswire reported.
Missing lawyer's car found with blood on the back seat
Slovak police have confirmed that a BMW found parked near a nursery school in Vráble in Nitra region belongs to Roman Ožvold, a lawyer who has been missing since last year and who previously worked as the chairman of the supervisory board of Slovakia's Tipos national lottery company, the Pravda daily wrote on its website on June 27. According to unofficial information, blood was found on the back seat of the car and the back of the vehicle shows signs of a shooting.
Fair-Play Alliance says its website is censored due to court ruling
The Fair-Play Alliance, a Slovak NGO focused on government accountability, announced that its website at znasichdani.sk was forced to remove information about companies represented by a certain person due to a court order, the TASR newswire reported. Zuzana Wienk, director of the NGO, said that a provisional ruling of the Bratislava II District Court obliged the NGO to remove information on the webpage but that the alliance had immediately appealed the ruling. The removal of the data was demanded in court by Jarmila Považanová, the statutory representative of the Strabag construction company. The court ruled that the website must remove all its data disclosing the total value of all public procurements of companies that Považanová represents or represented in the past. Wienk said that individual data are still available on the website, meaning that it takes only basic mathematics to calculate the total number for a company.
OKS representative to attend future Coalition Council sessions
Future sessions of the Coalition Council, consisting of the leaders of the four governing coalition parties, will include an MP from the Civic Conservative Party (OKS) whose four members of parliament were elected on the Most-Hid election slate and sit in that party’s caucus, the TASR newswire reported.
Slovakia’s Cibulková defeats world’s No. 1 at Wimbledon
Slovak tennis player Dominika Cibulková is continuing her best performance ever at Wimbledon and on June 27 managed to change the course of a match with the world’s No. 1 ranked women’s player, Caroline Wozniacka. She lost the first set 1:6 but won the next two sets 7:6 and 7:5.
Slovakia’s food chamber reports 32.4 percent of local food is domestically-produced
The Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK) stated that it considers it "alarming that, according to data provided by the EU, food safety in Slovakia is only at 47 percent", said SPPK chairman Dušan Janíček on June 27, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Judges’ initiative says their colleagues are too tolerant of Harabin's misbehaviour
Slovak judges are too tolerant of inappropriate behaviour by Supreme Court president Štefan Harabin and a number of controversial decisions made by the Judicial Council, which he chairs, states an initiative by a group of judges called 'For Open Justice' that was begun on June 24, the TASR newswire reported. The judges of the initiative are also unhappy about recent public harsh criticism of all judges as a group and the initiative believes the critics have not made certain distinctions among judges and circumstances.
Young police officer found dead in Brezno
A police officer has been found dead in his apartment in Brezno in Banská Bystrica Region, according to the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Gábor Grendel, and the spokesperson for the Banská Bystrica Regional Police Corps Directorate, Mária Faltániová, the TASR newswire reported. They said the 26-year-old officer was probably shot with his own firearm and the internal inspection department is investigating the death.
Czech President Klaus begins visit to Slovakia today
Czech President Václav Klaus and his wife Lívia began a three-day official visit to Slovakia on Monday, June 27, the Slovak President Office’s press department told the TASR newswire. The last time that Klaus and Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič officially met was in June 2009 in Prague. In their meetings in Bratislava the two presidents will attempt to identify new areas of potential cooperation between Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
KOVO trade union protests against Labour Code changes
Several thousand trade union members from Slovakia and the Czech Republic gathered in Zilina on June 25 to protest against proposed changes to the Labour Code, an overhaul of the tax and levy system, rising prices and poverty in Slovakia, the TASR reported.
Truckers’ association proposes lifelong ban for drunk drivers
One of Slovakia’s associations of truckers, ČESMAD, has proposed a more stringent penalty for professional truck drivers who drink and drive in the wake of a recent crash of a Slovak truck in Hungary, the TASR newswire reported.
BigBelly Solar bins in Bratislava
BRATISLAVA is testing special solar-powered rubbish bins. BC Product Slovakia has loaned six special solar bins called BigBelly Solar that are mechanically compacting the volume of waste and reducing the frequency of collection at six sites in the city. The SITA newswire wrote that this frees resources, slashes fuel costs and increases recycling opportunities.
Gas prices will rise
HOUSEHOLDS in Slovakia will start receiving heftier bills for natural gas in July even though the increased rates do not put gas prices at the level where Slovakia’s major gas utility, Slovenský Plynárenský Priemysel (SPP), would like to see them. The state’s utility regulator, the Office for Regulation of Network Industries (ÚRSO), approved an average 6.92 percent increase in gas prices for households as of July 20. Prices of gas used for heating will climb by 9.37 percent, on average, which might also be reflected in a 6-percent hike in household heating costs.
Art will soon invade public spaces
PUBLIC art will hit the streets and open spaces of the Slovak capital and the spa town of Piešťany as the 16th year of Socha a objekt (Statue and Object) begins on June 23 in Bratislava and on June 24 in Piešťany. Artworks will be installed on streets or in parks, as well as in several smaller galleries, to make the work of artists from 13 countries visible to people who do not normally visit galleries or museums.
Job applicants sought
THE IDEAL candidate, a university graduate, will demonstrate knowledge of procurement procedures, have good managerial skills and have at least five-years of relevant experience. So reads the state’s job advertisement seeking applicants who might fill the top job at Slovakia’s procurement watchdog agency. A new chief for the Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) will be chosen under the close watch of the public: this is the approach Prime Minister Iveta Radičová has chosen to take in response to an ongoing tug-of-war between opposition Smer party and her government over the post.
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