TURECKÁ
World halušky champs crowned
The sky and the earth were literally covered with halušky in Turecká, a village of 200 in central Slovakia when the third annual World Halušky Championship in preparing and eating halušky took place here on June 7 and 8. Over 10,000 people came to watch this celebration of the Slovak national food. 47 groups from Slovakia, Great Britain, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Ukraine gathered in this tiny village. The teams are made out of a cook and three helpers who chop the wood, start the fire, peal the potatoes, and fry the bacon. The cook himself must make three kilograms of dough, cook and drain the halušky, and mix the halušky with bryndza. Then the jury tastes them, and if the halušky taste good, the team must eat all of them. All of this is timed, and the team that is able to do it the fastest wins the World Halušky Championships. The jury considers the size of halušky, their texture, and weather they are done just right, and gives points for clean table as well. This time, the organizers gave samples of the halušky to the spectators. The best cooks of halušky in the world is Mišiak, the team from Banská Bystrica.
KOŠICE
Tall people's club seeking members
Due to the fact that a great number of tall people live in Košice, Slovakia's second largest city, a club for them has been established here. The idea to set up a Košice branch of the Club of Tall People, which has existed in Bratislava since 1993, was initiated about a year ago. To become a member of this club, men have to be taller than 190 centimeters and women must be over 180 cm. So far, the Bratislava club has 120 members. The tallest male member is 217 cm (7 feet, 3 inches) tall, and the tallest female is 194 cm (6 feet, 6 inches) tall. The club helps advise young people how to deal with their height, and how to find clothes , which, according to some members, can be "very difficult."
BANSKÁ BYSTRICA
860 kg of HCl leaks from tank
The train station in this central city of 84,000 was covered with 860 kilograms of 32 percent solution of HCl, when the acid leaked out of a tank. The tank itself contained an acid of 48 tons.
Early morning of June 9, around 5:00, the leak was discovered, and immediately the fire department was called in o help. At first the fire department was afraid, whether the acid has already gotten to the underwater. The fire department called in the help from NCHZ Nováky, a chemical company that sent out the tank, to help to clean up the acid and to stop the leaking. Due to the fast and effective help of the fire department the acid has not spread to the underwater, and has not caused an ecological catastrophe.
GÁNOVCE
Two shootings in eastern Slovakia
Two close friends, one a policeman, the other an entrepreneur, were shot in separate incidents early this month in the Poprad region. On June 2 the businessman was sitting in Gánovce, a village of 800 in eastern Slovakia, in his garden with his family. Two cars approached the house, stopped in front, and called the owner to come to the gate. When he did, they started firing, hitting him several times. They took off, and his relatives immediately called the ambulance. He is now in a hospital in Prešov with spinal cord damage, and is expected to stay there for six months.
Police reported that his friend, the policeman who was killed, was involved in crimes, such as stealing cars and reselling them. After the policeman's death, the police discovered danubit, an explosive, in the cellar of his house. The policeman was brutally killed. Witnesses say that a list of names of people to follow lay by his head. One of the names was his entrepreneur friend. The police explained the case as a war in between two mafias in the region.
