THE BACK yard of the house where eight-year-old Jožko S was savaged by a dog.photo: SME - Darius Ivan
Zborov
Dog kills eight-year-old boy
TRAGEDY struck in the eastern Slovak village of Zborov October 19. An eight-year-old boy, Jožko S, was attacked and killed by a German shepherd dog. The dog tore the boy to pieces as he was waiting in the yard for his friend to finish his homework. Why the dog attacked the boy is still unknown. Preliminary investigations, however, suggest that it managed to rip its chain off.
According to reports, Jožko S went to visit his friend. But his friend had to do his homework and he was told to wait in the yard. After about half an hour, the friend's mother came out to see one of her two dogs sitting next to Jožko's motionless body. She tried mouth-to-mouth resusitation and first aid but it was too late to save the boy.
"The dog inflicted multiple wounds. The boy died at the scene," Igor Majoroš, spokesman at the regional police headquarters in Prešov, told SME.
The principal of Jožko's school, Eliáš Soroka, said that there have been cases of some pupils not making it to class because of aggessive stray dogs, but no actual attacks have been reported.
Jožko's father, however, said that he knew of people who had been attacked by dogs. He also said that he himself had had his own dog put down because it ate his neighbor's hen. Locals told SME that there are dozens of stray dogs wandering around the village.
But the owner of the dog that is thought to have killed Jožko, said that his dogs were "completely calm".
"When I fed them they ate from my hand," he added.
SIX youngsters safely return "home".photo: SME - Ján Krošlák
Kremnica
Six break out of cuckoo's nest
SIX CHILD patients escaped from the Professor Matulay Psychiatric clinic in Kremnica but were apprehended several hours later, the daily SME wrote October 21.
The boys and girls, aged between 13 and 17, climbed out of a window on the clinic's first floor. The ward nurse noticed some time later that the children were missing.
Several hours after a search was launched, the children were apprehended on their way to Žiar nad Hronom. All the teenagers were safe and unhurt and were returned to the clinic.
The six runaways are being treated for behavioural disorders. It is believed that they had been plotting to escape for some time.
According to the clinic's director, Tibor Ďurian, such escapes are very rare.
Košice
Grow your own musical instrument
A RECENT exhibition called Plants in Music, held in the eastern Slovak city of Košice, surprised visitors with the most unusual musical instruments. Among the instruments on display were coconuts as rattle balls, and pumpkins as rumba balls.
The exhibits were brought to Košice from the Czech museum in Ostrava.
"We joined the history of music with botany, and we also prepared a handbook according to which children in elementary schools, for instance, can make some of the instruments themselves," said Jiřina Kobrtová, head of the Ostrava museum.
Mučín
New cave discovered
A NEW cave with petrified tree and leaf imprints that are estimated to be 19 million years old was discovered recently near the village of Mučín in the southern Slovak district of Lučenec.
The cave is 12 metres long and is situated in tuff rock. According to the Pravda daily, the newly-discovered cave immediately became the centre of attraction for the village population of 700.
Ľudovít Gaál, the head of the Slovak cave maintenance department, said that the cave probably originated from a rotten carbonated tree.
Mayor of Mučín, Vladimír Kunštár, said that apart from the tree fossil there is also a small lake in the lower part of the cave.
Gaál said that the Mučín cave is one of around 4,800 registered caves in Slovakia. However, only 16 are open to public. It is believed that the Mučín cave might soon be closed as well.
VANDALS daubed swastikas on war-history exhibits.photo: SME - Darius Ivan
Vyšný Komárnik, Svidník
Vandals spray fascist symbols on war exhibits
SWASTIKAS have been sprayed on exhibits at the open-air war-history museum in the eastern Slovak town of Svidník. Activists from the civic group Chránime kraj pod Duklou (Protecting Dukla Country), discovered the sprayed-on swastikas, as well as names and dates, and the name of a Polish football club, Ruch Chorzów.
According to the daily SME, the fascist symbols were sprayed on a warplane exhibited in the museum, near the village of Nižný Komárnik, as well as on a German tank near Svidník, situated close to the Polish border.
After the attack, museum employees painted over the damage, so police were unable to document it.
"Vandals can't be stopped," said the Svidník museum director Jozef Rodák. He thinks that Polish youths were behind the vandalism.
The museum features 52 outdoor pieces, including various exhibits from World War II. It is not the fist time that swastikas have been sprayed on exhibits, said Rodák.
Bratislava
Klobása championships
THE FISRT annual hot klobása (sausage) championships took place recently in the Slovak capital.
The event was organised by a group of Slovaks from Romania, and the Union of Lowland Slovaks, the daily Nový Čas wrote. The competition was held at Bratislava Castle October 16.
International teams competed in the championships with teams of sausage-making Slovaks from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Monte Negro.
"The best sausage is made of old swine. It has to be at least four or five years old. That kind of meat is used in Hungarian sausages," said one of the competitors, Ján Chovanec, who learned to make the spicy sausage from his grandfather in Hungary.
