Archive of articles - November 2014
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Third time’s a charm
THE DUTCH company Yssel, which specialises in the production and processing of reinforcement steel, has already tried and failed twice to carry out a significant investment in eastern Slovakia. Now it plans to invest €30 million into a new plant for the production of concrete parts for the construction of buildings in the village of Obid, close to Štúrovo.
Slovakia takes two more Guantanamo detainees
SLOVAKIA accepted another two inmates from the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre in Cuba, this time nationals of Tunisia and Yemen, increasing the total number of accepted Guantanamo detainees to eight.
Public procurement bill receives criticism
ON THE heels of the ongoing protests against corruption in the healthcare sector, the cabinet has presented a revision to the public procurement law which is meant to ban shell companies from the public procurement process, but critics have quickly emerged to argue the proposal is ineffective.
RegioJet selling Bratislava-Košice
THE CZECH private railway carrier RegioJet has launched the sale of tickets for trains that will be running from Bratislava through Žilina to Košice as of December 14. The trains will run three times a day in both directions, the TASR newswire wrote.
Institutions of Belgium in Slovakia
Embassy of Belgium in SlovakiaAmbassador: Christian G. Lepagewww.diplomatie.be/bratislava
Kiska makes first address to MPs
POLITICIANS can hardly keep convincing people that the biggest problem of health care is the lack of money if the state tolerates murky deals and waste of public funds in the healthcare sector, President Andrej Kiska said in his first key address to the parliament on November 26 – with Prime Minister Robert Fico notably absent. The president’s speech came on the heels of a number of changes to senior political posts, including that of the speaker of parliament after the resignation of Pavol Paška provoked by a recent scandal surrounding overpriced medical equipment and subsequent anti-corruption rallies. Fico did not attend and Kiska spoke to a half-empty house in the presence of a single cabinet official, Finance Minister Peter Kažimír, the Sme daily reported.
Connecting with the classics
IT IS difficult and challenging to evaluate art, but there are competitions that dare to tread on this thin ice – with the goal of exhibiting and promoting certain genres, styles or young artists.
Eagles prefer Hungary to Slovakia, blood tests show
SLOVAK ornithologists are using a new scientific method of getting DNA from the ends of birds’ moulted feathers. Thanks to its use, they were able to determine that two of the rare Eastern imperial eagle (Aquila Heliaca) born in Slovakia in 2004 and 2006, are alive and fit. However, Hungarian ornithologists now located the two Slovak eagles on their territory.
Judges should explain their work
IN THE Netherlands many judges are on Twitter or on Facebook, commenting on their work to make people understand what their job is, says Dutch Ambassador to Slovakia Richard Van Rijssen, who suggests that if judges in Slovakia started themselves to be transparent about what they do and openly explain judgments, that would help to improve the perception of the judiciary here a great deal.
Čachtice received prestigious European award of British journalists
THE ASSOCIATION of travel journalists, the British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW) made the Čachtice castle and the municipality of Čachtice a runner-up for their Best European Tourism Project. This locality in Trenčín region of western Slovakia was pronounced an exceptional tourism project and recommended to be visited.
Encyclopaedia about life in Jewish communities complete
THE TRADITIONS of the Jewish community are mapped by the Encyclopaedia of Jewish Religious Communities in Slovakia whose fourth volume was issued by Judaica Slovaca, the publishing house of the Museum of Jewish Culture, part of the Slovak National Museum (SNM).
IPI wary of libel lawsuits
DESPITE 25 years since the fall of the communist regime Slovak media still face threats particularly the threat of debilitating libel lawsuits to intimidate publishers, according to an expert discussion held on November 25.
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The Netherlands: General facts
Political system: Constitutional monarchyCapital: Amsterdam (however, the parliament and the monarch reside in The Hague)Total area: 41,526 square kilometresPopulation: about 16.8 millionOfficial language: DutchCurrency: euro
Co-owners of Dôvera insurer still secret
“DO YOU think we don’t want to know who the owner of Dôvera is?” Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a televised debate on the public-service Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) on November 23. He claims that if the state is to proceed with the plan of introducing a single, state-run health insurer, they will need to know who the owners of the private health insurer Dôvera are if they are to negotiate about the expropriation or purchase of the insurer.
Quote of the week
“I wish our education sector had the same efficiency as the exchange of education ministers has had in recent months.”
Elizabethan University operated only a few years in Bratislava, but its library survives to the present
BRATISLAVA, then called Pressburg, Pozsony or Prešporok, was long without a university. After a short period in the 15th century, there was no education of this kind and local councillors had been pressing for 30 years to found one in their hometown.
UPDATED: Countrywide Events
Western SLOVAKIA
SOZA prizes given
THE SLOVAK Performing and Mechanical Rights Society (SOZA), a non-profit association of authors and publishers of musical works which protects their copyrights, granted for the 17th time the awards to artists successful in the Slovak musical scene who are forming the profile of music culture. It awarded eight musicians altogether, with two Slovak composers inscribed into the SOZA golden book, the SITA newswire reported.
Mochovce budget hike cleared
THE ECONOMY Ministry agreed to increase the budget on building two new reactors at the Mochovce nuclear power plant during a Slovenské Elektrárne (SE) shareholder meeting on November 21. Costs will balloon a further €830 million to €4.63 billion, the state owns a third of SE’s shares with Italian conglomerate Enel controlling the rest.
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- News digest: Fico’s bloc wants to save money by restricting electoral access
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Stupava Photo
- Paris leads, Bratislava trails: European cities ranked on safe travel for children
- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list
- The disinformation scene has become a tool of media capture
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- News digest: Fico’s bloc wants to save money by restricting electoral access
- Convicted of multiple murders, Slovakia’s mafia boss seeks release from prison
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- News digest: Violent gang in Bratislava is under arrest
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list
- The disinformation scene has become a tool of media capture
- Paris leads, Bratislava trails: European cities ranked on safe travel for children
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- A mayor resigns over €2.7 million fraud scandal at town hall
- Show me your moves! Slovak hockey stars share their best pick-up lines
- He designed Gatwick. But this is his masterpiece
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Fico praises China and Vietnam as models, says liberal democracy has failed
- The compass points to Kúty, and people are starting to follow
- News digest: Violent gang in Bratislava is under arrest
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Stupava Photo
- News digest: Fico’s bloc wants to save money by restricting electoral access
- Slovakia plans to restrict access to new medicines amid funding shortfall
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners
- Maria Theresa on the banks of Bratislava
- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list More articles ›
