Bratislava
British woman living in Slovakia awarded
Ailsa Doman, a British war veteran living in Slovakia, was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on May 24, SITA wrote.
Doman received the prestigious Order of the British Empire for services to veterans during the Second World War and for her personal contribution to forming bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the Slovak Republic.
Doman's husband, Alexander, was a resistance fighter. The couple lived in Zvolen in central Slovakia for several decades.
Bratislava
Ministers agree on need for DNA info exchange
A MEETING of the Salzburg Forum on May 23 resulted in agreement from the member states' interior ministers that a multi-country DNA information exchange would boost crime-fighting efforts.
In a signed declaration, the ministers stated that the Forum should cooperate at two levels - the exchange of information and experience and jointly pushing for their demands before EU bodies.
Other matters included admitting Croatia to the Forum member, a discussion of witness protection programmes and an information exchange on countries of origin for asylum applicants, TASR wrote.
The Salzburg Forum includes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania.
Slovakia
Hungarian vs Slovak guides
THE LAST few days in the High Tatras have looked more like the beginning of December than June. Lomnický štít (2,632 metres) recently received 50 centimetres of new snow and saw temperatures plummet to -7 degrees Celsius on May 31. Underneath, the Skalnaté pleso (in picture) recorded -3 degrees and 30 centimetres of new snow. Such bad weather is unusual for this time of year, but not extreme. Expect more snow in the first days of June.
photo: TASR
TWO Hungarian tour guides and a Hungarian tourist allegedly involved in a physical confrontation in Bratislava on May 20 will face civil charges, Tatiana Kurucová of the Bratislava Regional Police Department told TASR on May 21.
The incident took place shortly before 11:00 near St Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava when three men were stopped by a tour guide inspector who asked to see certification issued by the Bratislava Cultural Centre.
"One of the men is said to have [then] attacked the inspector, who consequently called police," Kurucová said.
The men were taken to a police station, questioned with the help of an interpreter and eventually released. The case will be dealt with by the regional office of the department of general internal administration, specifically the section that deals with misdemeanour disorderly conduct charges.
The three Hungarians feel victimised and consider the incident to have an "anti-Hungarian motive". They allege that other groups of tourists from other countries, being led by their own guides and speaking their native languages, were not seen as a problem by city officials.
The Hungarian media has alleged that the tour guides provided by the Bratislava Cultural Centre fail to provide guides with sufficient Hungarian language skills and knowledge of the city to satisfy Hungarian tourists.
Bratislava
Slovakia chooses new planes
THE PURCHASE of new aircraft for the Slovak armed forces appears to be in the cards, as three manufacturers of military transport planes were scheduled to come to Slovakia to present their products, SME daily reports.
The armed forces expect to acquire the new transport aircraft in 2010.
Army spokesman Milan Vanga, however, does not want to reveal the actual number of planes the army wants to buy nor the price that has been earmarked for them.
The first visit took place on May 23 when US firm Lockheed Martin presented the latest version of the Hercules C-130J-30. This aircraft, costing over $60 million each, was displayed at the military airport in Kuchyňa in westen Slovakia.
Following Lockheed, European manufacturers Alenia Aeronautica were scheduled to come to present their Spartan planes.
The third company to offer its aircraft to Slovakia is EADS-CASA.
Bratislava, Košice, Trenčianske Teplice
Politicians wed
MEMBER of European Parliament Monika Beňová of the opposition Smer party and businessman Fedor Flašík got married on May 20 in the Primate Palace in Bratislava.
Reception guests included Smer deputy chairman Robert Kaliňák and prominent Smer member Martin Glváč, who also acted as the best man for the groom.
TASR news agency reported that despite her earlier determination not to cry at the wedding ceremony, Beňová was eventually moved to tears.
For both Beňová and Flašík, this was a second marriage. Both have divorced their former spouses.
When asked who will be making decisions in their new marriage Flašík said it would be clearly his wife. In their private life "she will be the head as well as the neck", said Flašík.
"When a woman makes decisions in everything, everything is safe. Then there are no disputes in a marriage," he said.
More celebrity marriages including politicians are planned for this spring in Slovakia.
Only a few weeks before the general elections, ANO's Aneta Parišková will marry Martin Dočekal, a Czech businessman close to ANO chairman Pavol Rusko. The wedding will take place in Košice.
In early May, SDKÚ's Martin Fedor, Slovakia's Defence Minister, married his wife Michaela, who reportedly works as an assistant to PM Mikuláš Dzurinda in Trenčianske Teplice. PM Dzurinda and his wife were among the wedding party guests.
Nitra
Engineering fair
A TOTAL of 961 exhibitors and 342 other firms from 28 countries presented their products at the 13th annual International Engineering Fair at Nitra's Agrokomplex exhibition centre, which ran May 23-26.
This year, exhibitors occupied an area of more than 34,000 square metres, which is significantly larger than in the past. The highest number of foreign exhibitors were from the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria, with France joining this year.
The fair was divided into five specialist exhibitions - welding, casting, construction and mechanisation, plastics and chemical engineering and electrical engineering, quantifying and automation.
The fair caters to both experts and the wider public, and is among the five largest specialised fairs in Slovakia. The opening ceremony was attended by President Ivan Gašparovič, TASR wrote.
