Bojnice
Female elephants entertain visitors
MAJA blows the blues at Bojnice zoo.photo: TASR
BOJNICE zoo's female elephants, Maja and Gula, are a favourite among zoo visitors with their musical and footballing talents, and regularly put on a show for curious crowds.
Maja and Gula play the harmonica, enjoy a little footie, and are able to pick up small coins from the floor.
The elephants' caretaker, Vladimír Pazdera, has been teaching the tricks to the elephants, having raised them since they were calves.
The two elephants came to Slovakia 18 years ago from Zimbabwe.
Praha, Slovakia
Slovak Prague helps the Czech capital
THE TINY Slovak village of Praha (meaning Prague in Slovak and Czech), with a population of 100 inhabitants, collected Sk30,000 ($680) for the Czech capital Prague to help alleviate the city's flood damage.
Ján Krman, mayor of Praha in the southern Lučenec district, said that two thirds of his village's inhabitants had contributed.
Czech member of parliament František Beneš said that Prague had been touched by the Slovaks' move.
"The value of this gift cannot be measured in monetary terms. It proves that we have not been left alone in our troubles," Beneš said.
Senec
Car hits pigs, all die
A SPEEDING car crashed into two wild pigs which were crossing a highway, resulting in four fatalities.
The driver and passenger were found dead in the burned-out shell of their vehicle just off the highway. The pigs were found dead on the road.
Following the crash with the 100-kilo and 80-kilo wild pigs near the western Slovak town of Senec, the car left the road, plunged through a crash barrier and hit a cement pillar.
The resulting explosion prevented the man and his female passenger from escaping the car.
Cífer
Coffee billboard stolen
AN UNKNOWN thief stole a 200-kilo billboard promoting ice-coffee.
The billboard, worth Sk600,000, carried the slogan "Lust for Life", and had been fixed to a large construction near a local farm. Local farmers said it had taken them a week to erect the construction.
Along with the advertiser, the farm authorities are also unhappy at losing their monthly Sk20,000 in income from the ad.
Lovinobaňa
Wife beats husband to death
A FAMILY tragedy that resulted in the death of a local man September 1 has left locals shocked.
After what neighbours said was a typical marital fight between Anna, 39, and her husband Jaroslav, 45, the woman knocked her drunken husband to the floor, and then beat him with her fists and kicked him.
After he fell unconscious she called an ambulance, but Jaroslav died the following morning in hospital. Neighbour Helena Výlevová said she had little sympathy for the deceased man.
"He was a drunkard and he made her take up drinking too. He tortured her for years. Every night after 11 it was impossible to sleep around here because of the noise. Some time ago he stabbed her in the chest, but she dropped the charges," Výlevová said.
Anna faces 10 to 15 years in prison if convicted.
