Archive of articles - January 2012, page 10
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Exhibition and fair premises and organisers in Slovakia
Agrokomplex-Výstavníctvo Nitra
Polls predict no clear outcome yet
WITH only around 60 days to go until the general election on March 10, political opinion polls are now among the most closely watched news events. However, the latest poll results have left pundits unwilling to proffer any bold predictions about the outcome of the parliamentary elections.
PM dismisses VOP’s management
PRIME MINISTER Iveta Radičová, who is also the current acting defence minister, has decided that Ľubomír Repčík, the chair of the board of directors of the VOP Nováky military maintenance company, plus all members of the state-run firm’s supervisory board, will be dismissed, the Sme daily reported.
Politicians hit the road seeking votes
POLITICAL parties and their candidates are now hitting the road in their bids to attract voters for the March 10 parliamentary elections.
Quote of the week
“Mrs Bubeníková was like one of the main characters of a novel or TV series.”
Slovakia posts strong export growth
STRONG sales in China of automobiles produced in Slovakia contributed to a significant increase in exports throughout 2011. Exports grew by nearly 10 percent in October and then recorded 7.5 percent year-on-year growth in November, resulting in a positive trade balance of €330 million for the month, the Hospodárske Noviny daily reported.
Dzurinda and Sedgwick discuss new US defence strategy
The new US defence strategy for the 21st century was the key issue discussed at a meeting between Slovak Foreign Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda and US Ambassador to Slovakia Theodore Sedgwick on Thursday, January 12.
Real salaries rose y-o-y in November only in IT and construction sectors
Average nominal monthly salaries in Slovakia grew fastest in the IT sector in November 2011, by 8.6 percent year-on-year, according to figures published by the Statistics Office (ŠÚ) on Thursday, January 12. Nominal salaries also rose in construction (4.9 percent), in industry (3 percent), in retail (1.9 percent), and in accommodation services (0.4 percent).
Hugau: Denmark takes over EU presidency amid serious crisis
Denmark took over the presidency of the EU on January 1 during one of the biggest and possibly the most severe crises in the history of the EU, said Danish Ambassador to Slovakia Anita Hugau at a press conference in Bratislava on Thursday, January 12, during which she introduced the key points of the Danish EU presidency.
Investors snap up €1 billion of Slovak five-year bonds
The Slovak government raised €1 billion in a sale of five-year government bonds with an annual coupon rate of 4.625 percent on Wednesday, January 11. The bond sale attracted interest from 135 investors from Europe and Asia, the Debt Management and Liquidity Agency (ARDAL) said on Thursday.
Danube Wings reports 13.3 percent drop in passenger numbers in 2011
Slovak airline Danube Wings carried a total of 74,211 passengers last year. Compared with 2010, when the number of passengers reached 85,566, the figure represents a decrease of 13.3 percent. The number of passengers on it charter flights rose 2.5-fold to 38,767.
FNM chief sacked over Gorilla file
GORILLA, a leaked file purporting to describe an operation conducted by the country’s main intelligence agency between 2005 and 2006 over suspicions of high-ranking political corruption, has claimed its first victim. The cabinet of Iveta Radičová sacked Anna Bubeníková, a nominee of Radičová’s own Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), from her job as head of the National Property Fund (FNM), the state privatisation agency, on January 11.
Court rules elementary school segregates Roma students
The Prešov District Court ruled that the elementary school in Šarišské Michaľany has been segregating Roma students, noting that 12 of 22 classes consisted only of Roma students, the Sme daily reported. The school has 430 students and about half are Roma, Sme wrote, and the classrooms with Roma-only students are all on a different floor than the non-Roma classrooms.
Nation’s Memory Institute to lay off staff, causing cries of foul
Layoffs are planned at the Nation’s Memory Institute (ÚPN) and seven of the nine people scheduled to lose their jobs have already been informed, the Sme daily wrote on January 12, adding that employees who had worked on preparing an amendment to the Act on the ÚPN last year are among those to be laid off. A month ago the cabinet passed the amendment, designed to boost the powers of this institution that examines crimes conducted under the past fascist and communist regimes. ÚPN stated that the layoffs will cut its administrative and supervisory staff and reduce its costs.
Bratislava court rules selection process for rescue services was faulty
The Bratislava Regional Court has ruled on the side of companies which had failed in bids to receive licenses to operate medical rescue services, the Sme daily wrote on January 12. The court ruled on January 11 that the Health Ministry had breached the law in the selection procedure when choosing the providers of rescue services.
U.S. Steel may cancel its crisis regime and return to full operations
The market situation for Slovakia's biggest private employer, U.S. Steel Košice (USSK), has been improving and the company may be able to resume normal operations, Hospodárske Noviny reported on January 12, writing that the company may be able to cancel the crisis regime it announced in December.
New government strategy announced to improve housing for Roma
Housing and community infrastructure should become more accessible to Roma citizens and the number of illegal Roma settlements should drop by 25 percent within the next eight years, states the Roma Integration Strategy document approved by the government on January 11, the TASR newswire reported. The tools to implement these goals are further development of lower-standard housing co-financed by EU funds and adjustments to legislation on the provision of housing benefit. In the future, state housing benefits would be paid directly to landlords and would only apply to housing-related fees, TASR wrote.
Police investigate missing iron castings taken from a freight train
Police reports state that more than 100 tons of iron castings "disappeared" from open high-wall freight cars of a train coming from the Russian Federation to the railway station in Čierna nad Tisou in the Trebišov District, the SITA newswire wrote.
Poll asks which politicians did not keep their promises
Mikuláš Dzurinda, the chairman of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), and Robert Fico, the chairman of the opposition Smer party, topped a chart of politicians who made the most promises to voters while failing to fulfil them based on a telephone survey conducted by the WakeUp agency between December 1 and 9, 2011, involving a sample of 1,212 respondents older than age 18, the SITA newswire reported.
Slovak selected as president of UN Economic and Social Council
Miloš Koterec was appointed the president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), becoming the first Slovak to hold the post since the country was formed in 1993, the Foreign Ministry announced on January 11, as reported by the TASR newswire. In his address to the council, Koterec, who previously served as Slovakia's Permanent Representative at the UN, presented ECOSOC's priorities for 2012. He said, as reported by TASR, that these include boosting co-operation with other global and regional institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as following up on the outcomes of the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20).
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