Vráble
Youths face prison over forged notes
THREE youths from Vráble face charges in connection with the manufacture of seven forged Sk1,000 (€25) banknotes. The youths made the banknotes on a computer.
If found guilty the young men could receive jail sentences of between five and 10 years.
Police found out that a certain 23-year-old Štefan made an electronic version of the bank note and saved it on a USB memory key. He then gave this to a certain 17-year-old Ján. Ján and his 22-year-old accomplice Juraj printed seven notes on a special printer.
Police discovered the forged notes before the youths had a chance to use them, the TASR news agency reported.
Zlaté Moravce
Migazzi crypt opened for a day
THOSE who visited Zlaté Moravce on April 18 could enter the crypt of the Italian Migazzi family.
photo: SME - Jana Beňová
THE CRYPT of the Italian Migazzi family was opened to the public for one day on April 18, the SME daily reported.
The family first came to the region in the 17th century and the last count, William, was an MP for the now defunct constituency of Tekov.
William's wife, Antonia, was the founder of a Red Cross station in Zlaté Moravce and helped the poor and orphaned all her life.
Marián Tomajko, the director of the local gardening ser-vice that administers and maintains the crypt, takes up the story:
"While working with the poor, Antonia got typhus and died. William continued her charity work and had an orphanage built in Zlaté Moravce. One year later he built a crypt for his deceased wife. In one of the two sarcophagi he laid the remains of his wife and he was buried in the other one 10 years later. The family therefore died in the male line," he said.
The sarcophagi are made of Austrian black marble and have not before been officially opened to the public. The visitors also admired the altar made from white marble from Caracas and gemstones.
The couple had three daughters, no sons. One of the daughters, Irma, got married to Imrich Erdödy who lived in Hlohovec. Irma owned the Piešťany spa. The second daughter, Vilma, married Hugo Oberndorf and owned the Dudince spa. The youngest daughter Antonia married count Štefan Ambróz - the founder of arboretum in Mlyňany.
Budimír
Antiques and curiosities show
CLASSIC cars and ladies dressed in period costume were on show at an April 16 market of antiques and curiosities in Budimír near Košice, the daily SME wrote.
Hundreds of people came to admire the cars as well as buy antiques displayed at the local castle park.
Around 20 classic cars rolled up. A black and red cabriolet DKV, made by German company Auto Union in 1935, got the most attention.
The pre-war classic's owner, Michal Šoltés from Košice, has been driving it for 15 years.
"It was a complete wreck, a pile of old metal, when I got it. The renovation took five years. The frame of the bodywork is made of wood. I had to replace everything, including the floor and the trunk. The engine had to be completely repaired. I've driven hundreds of kilometres in it since 1990," Šoltés told the daily.
The exhibition also featured a blue 1932 Praga Picolo, a model known by the nickname The American.
"The model was meant for the US market. In the end the Americans withdrew from the contract because Praga did not have enough production capacity. I think this is the only Praga car in Slovakia," said owner Michal Šiňanský.
An antique dealer from Košice, Karol Linhart, is the brains behind the market. This is the 60th one he has organized, visited by more than 30,000 people. He is planning an historical handicrafts market in May, also at Budimír.
Hodruša-Hámre
Car hits horses: two die
A CAR crashed into a group of horses crossing the road near Hodruša-Hámre in Central Slovakia on April 18.
The accident happened shortly before 21:00. One of the horses died immediately and another one suffered serious injuries. Following a vet's inspection the owner agreed to have the animal put down, the TASR news agency wrote.
After crashing into the horses, the car swerved off the road, but the driver was not hurt.
Vysoké Tatry
Lomnický štít 2,634 metres tall
THE LOMNICKÝ štít peak, the second highest in the High Tatras, has had its height confirmed at 2,634 metres above sea level.
A special piece of technology located on the summit of Lomnický štít determined the exact height of the peak through "online" methodology, the TASR news agency reported.
The device looks like a plate and is able to record any ground movements, according to the specialists who operate it.
"The world moves and sometimes the movements are very dramatic. We saw it during Christmas with the earthquake in Southeast Asia. In the High Tatras we record movements measured in centimetres and even millimetres," said Samuel Štefánik of the Slovak Academy of Sciences' Institute of Experimental Physics.
Slovakia
Bratislava vs Slovakia
RESENTMENT is stirring in the minds of non-Bratislavans against the capital.
People in the provinces envy the capital and its residents, mostly because of the concentration of money and power, the low unemployment, higher-than-average salaries and celebrities, the SME daily reported April 20.
Echoing the general opinion, a Košice businessman called Bratislava a "spoiled child". According to sociologist Ľubomír Falťan, provincial aversion to Bratislava has deep historical roots.
"Bratislava is a different world. People in Bratislava have a higher living standard compared with the rest of Slovakia. Reducing this difference might decrease the distaste for the capital city," he told the daily.
According to SME, the aversion for Bratislava - as well as the aversion of its inhabitants for other Slovak towns - is revealed in sports, including ice hockey and football, and in voting on the television show SuperStar.
Just recently Slovan Bratislava beat Zvolen to win the Slovak ice hockey championship. Many people supported Zvolen just because they do not want to support a team from Bratislava.
In the SuperStar TV show a singer from the eastern Slovak town of Prešov, 23-year-old Katarína Koščová, won the title over a 16-year-old student from Bratislava, Martina Šindlerová.
SME noted, however, that in nations all over the world tensions exist between those who live in capital cities and those outside.
But while other countries' citizens are proud of their capitals, Slovaks from the regions persist in their negative attitude towards Bratislava, SME wrote.
Bratislava
Turtles, large fish in Štrkovec lake
ALTHOUGH turtles are not typical for Slovak lakes, the Štrkovec lake in Bratislava's Ružinov district is renowned for them.
Turtles have been breeding in the urban lake for four years now, according to the SITA news agency.
Lesia Richterová of the local municipal office's environment section says that local residents are responsible for the phenomenon.
"People who live in the local housing estates and want to get rid of their pet turtles simply dump them in the lake," Richterová told the news agency.
Richterová says that because the alien creatures are harmless the municipality is not allowed to capture them.
Apart from the turtles fish also breed in the lake, mostly carp but there are also some pike.
The local fishermen now wonder how to catch some of the 7-10 years old fish, which are so big and heavy they are very difficult to catch.
The Štrkovec lake measures 56,000 square metres and is 2.5 to 8 metres deep.
