photo: Courtesy of Truc sphérique
ŽILINA welcomed the EU entry with a fire show and bread with lard and onions.photo: Courtesy of Truc sphérique
Slovakia
Country celebrates EU entry
PEOPLE around the country celebrated Slovakia's entry to the EU on May 1.
Fireworks and various festivities accompanied the celebrations in big Slovak cities such as Bratislava, Košice, and Banská Bystrica.
In the northern Slovak town of Žilina, the civic group Truc sphérique organised a symbolic public celebration of the country's EU entry.
The celebrations were accompanied by various artistic performances. In Žilina, a brass band played the European anthem and the group Mauna Kea performed a fire show, Robo Blaško from Truc sphérique informed The Slovak Spectator.
Rakúsy
Boy found stabbed to death
A TWELVE-year-old Roma boy, Bystrík, was found stabbed to death near a farm in Slovakia's northeastern village of Rakúsy.
"The boy left home at four in the afternoon and he never came home. We went searching for him the next morning and we found him near the [farm] fence. He was bloody and we saw cut wounds on his back. His head was covered in blood too," one of the men who found the boy told the Slovak daily SME on April 28.
The family of the boy, who was in fourth grade at the local elementary school, is in shock. "We had looked for him in the evening and we went to the place where he was eventually found. But he wasn't there yet. [Before Bystrík left home] he said he would play soccer in the field, but he wasn't there either," Bystrík's father said to SME.
Police used dogs to find Bystrík, who reportedly died from shock caused by massive bleeding.
"The boy had Sk28 [€0.70] on him so we can exclude robbery as a motive," the police source said.
The brutal murderer probably used a knife to stab the boy seven times - four stab wounds were found on Bystrík's back, two were close to the shoulder blades, and one in the chest.
Zvolen
Man tries to cheat train system, fails
A MAN who tried to avoid paying for a train ticket took a longer ride than he planned after the train failed to stop at his desired destination.
According to the state-run news agency TASR, the 37-year-old traveller jumped onto the back of a train wagon and hung onto its bumper.
He got on at the Zvolen train station and planned to get off in Sliač, which is just five kilometres away. But the train did not stop in Sliač and instead took him to Banská Bystrica, where police arrested him.
Trnava
Apprentice uses his tools for ill
APPRENTICE chef Róbert K, 18, was accused of attempted murder after attacking fellow student Jozef J, 17, with a meat cleaver.
The attack took place on April 26 in a hostel in Trnava, where the aspiring chefs are training, the private news agency SITA wrote.
It is unclear why Róbert K tried to kill Jozef J, but police confirmed that the attacker brought the cleaver from home. He started the attack in the dressing room, where he crept up on his victim from behind.
Jozef J was struck in the head and back 17 times, suffering extensive injuries on the head, chest, and arms.
ANIMAL rights supporters race to bring abandoned pets to new homes.photo: TASR
Bratislava
Racing to find homes for pets
THE THIRD annual Adoption Marathon took place in Bratislava on May 2.
According to the state-run news agency TASR, the marathon event was organised by the local animal rights group Animal Freedom.
The marathon helped to find adoptive families for nine out of about 100 pets that live in Animal Freedom's refuge centres.
Košice
Thieves take cue from Spider Man
THIEVES who stole a laptop computer and Sk460,000 (€11,350) in jewels demonstrated spider-like qualities when they broke into an office space by climbing up the lightning conductor.
The state-run news agency TASR wrote that the unknown thieves initially robbed an office on the first floor of a building on Košice's Priemyselná street on the night of April 17.
Jana Demjanovičová, the Košice police spokeswoman, said to TASR that the thieves managed to get into the office through a half-open window. They broke into a drawer in the office and found keys to the safe where the jewels were stored.
They then climbed up the lightning conductor to the third floor, where they found the computer, worth Sk44,250 (€1,100).
Nitra
Man robbed to the skin
TWO MEN were accused of robbery, blackmail, and limiting personal freedom after they robbed a man of all his belongings, including the clothes he was wearing.
According to the private news agency SITA, the incident took place on April 26. The two culprits were driving a black Mercedes when they forced a 25-year-old man from the southern Slovak village of Močenok into their car.
They beat him, removed all his clothes, and drove him to the Hetméň village. They told him they would smash his head if he reported the case to the police.
Then they took his mobile phone and threw him out of the car.
Police arrested the men shortly afterwards and put them into pre-trial custody, the Nitra regional police spokeswoman Renáta Čuháková said to SITA.
If convicted on all grounds, the men, not named, face up to 10 years in jail.
Richnava
Robbing graves to recycle
ABOUT EIGHTY people from the eastern Slovak village of Richnava, near Gelnica, have reported missing metal crosses from their relatives' tombstones in the local cemetery.
It is believed that the increased price of waste metal has caused the unusual theft and that the thieves sell the crosses to recycling centres.
Apart from the metal crosses, several manholes have been stolen from the village, as have metal parts of telephone distribution frames.
The deputy mayor of Richnava, Anna Harmanová, said to the Slovak daily SME that an unknown thief stole all the metal parts from the local fire station.
"An investigation is being carried out, but the perpetrator of the cross thefts is still unknown," said František Puškár, head of the district police department in Krompachy.
"Crime has been on the rise in Richnava and in the nearby village Kluknava. Apart from the metal thefts, we have seen an increase in poachers and thefts from uninhabited houses," Puškár said.
He said that the police swept the metal recycling centres but found no trace of the crosses. Locals think that the thieves break the crosses into small pieces before selling them as scrap metal.
