Košice
Love-struck teacher texted student
A TEACHER was fired from a secondary school in Košice for writing a text message to a student expressing his adoration for the girl.
The incident took place in early November at the Park mládeže bi-lingual Slovak-Spanish grammar school, the TASR news agency wrote. The unnamed teacher is from Equador.
"The case proves that the trust between students, teachers and school managers is working well," said the school's principal, Alena Bobáková. She added that the teacher's message was not of an erotic nature but insisted that with the SMS the teacher "sowed a seed of mistrust".
The Spanish teacher was still in his probationary period when the incident happened and so the school decided to fire him.
Čadca
Justice caught taking bribes
A SENIOR judge from a district court in the northern Slovak town of Čadca was detained on November 4 on suspicion of taking a bribe. He allegedly demanded the money in a civil case, the TASR news agency wrote.
A man, who was asked for a Sk50,000 (€1,285) bribe, cooperated with the Anti-corruption Bureau to arrest the judge, who was the chairman of the local court senate. Police found the money from the bribe in the judge's office.
The judge is also accused of abuse of public office. As the Slovak Constitutional Court approved a request from prosecutors to place the judge in custody, he is to be held pending investigation into the case.
Žilina
Firemen free roe deer
FOUR firemen from the northern Slovak town of Žilina freed a young roe deer from a 10 metre-deep hole in the garden of a house in the Žilina-Závodie district on November 5.
Apparently, the deer jumped over the fence around the house and fell into what used to be a well, the TASR news agency wrote.
"The roe was distressed and kicked out, which made it hard to go down to her. In the end, the firemen threw a coat over her head so she calmed down. They then hoisted her up using a volleyball net," said operations officer Miroslav Marton.
The firemen let the young deer go free.
Banská Bystrica
Black widow confesses in court
A WOMAN faced a Banská Bystrica regional court on November 3 accused of the premeditated murder of her boyfriend, Marián Medvec. The court heard that she killed him with an axe, then poured gas on him and set him alight, the daily SME wrote.
The murder took place more than a year ago.
Forensic specialists labelled 36-year-old financial advisor Anna K from Pliešovce as highly dangerous. The wife of the victim is demanding life imprisonment and Sk1 million (€25,000) in compensation.
Anna K at first admitted to all charges but later denied that she set light to the victim. She said that Peter G, the 23-year-old boyfriend of her daughter, did that.
Anna K allegedly stood to gain Sk1.3 million (€33,000) from life insurance and a flat that Medvec signed over to her before his death.
The woman was already suspected of attempting to kill two previous partners, which police never managed to prove.
Miroslav Marko from Pliešovce was one of her alleged victims. Marko said that at the end of 2002 Anna K threw an electric lamp into the water while he was having a bath.
"I filed a criminal complaint but the police released her after a few hours," said Marko, who has a son with Anna K.
She allegedly told the investigators that if she had wanted to kill Marko, she would have done it differently.
It is believed that Anna K planned the murder of Medvec in great detail. In court, however, she said that she did not know why she suddenly took the axe from the cellar shortly before the murder.
During the trial, however, it was revealed that some time before the murder, she contacted a person who said Anna K wanted to kill her partner and tried to buy rat poison in various shops.
In mid-July last year Anna K came to a final decision on how to kill Medvec.
She added sedatives to his coffee and once they took effect, she and her daughter's boyfriend put him in a car and drove him outside the village. In a field, Anna K struck Medvec with the axe 15 times, poured the gas over him and lit the body.
"I am very sorry, I did not mean to kill him," Anna K told the court.
The head of the judicial senate told her that it was hard to believe that she did not want to kill Medvec considering the fact that she hit him so many times.
Greenpeace closes the former Tesáre farm contaminated with chemicals.
photo: SME - Ján Krošlák
Hontianske Tesáre
Police investigate chemicals at farm
SLOVAK police started an investigation into the case of toxic chemicals found in a derelict building at a former agricultural cooperative in Hontianske Tesáre in the district of Krupina.
Five to ten tonnes of toxic chemicals were found stored in a building, which has a damaged roof, broken windows and a door closed by a simple metal hook. Spokesperson for the Prešov regional police, Magdaléna Fečová, told the SITA news agency that investigators are treating the case as a criminal threat to the environment.
Fečová added that samples of the chemicals were taken and sent for analysis.
Greenpeace activists ex-plained that at least 22 different agrochemicals are kept in the old warehouse, set only a few dozen metres from residential housing.
Many of the materials, stored in damaged containers, are carcinogenic. Greenpeace repre-sentatives pointed out the possible danger of the chemicals being spread by the wind or getting into ground water. "The activists closed the warehouse and the gate was secured by chain and lock. We gave the keys to the mayor and the police," stated Greenpeace anti-toxins' campaign coordinator, Katarína Ventusová.
Official estimates say there are approximately 300 to 400 tonnes of old pesticides stored at various sites across the Slovak Republic. The non-governmental organization Ipeľská Únia found that in the Nitra and Banská Bystrica regions alone there are 146 storage sites of old agricultural chemicals con-taining approximately 97 tonnes of pesticides.
Most of the sites are bankrupt agricultural cooperatives. The fact that they are bankrupt complicates the identification of those responsible. Greenpeace representatives think that the state should take over responsibility for the problem.
A bill on the liquidation of old environmental burdens being prepared by the Environment Ministry should resolve the issue. "The bill is practically ready, but it is still being negotiated and modified. I don't know when it will be ready for parliamentary debate," stated Environment Ministry spokesperson, Anna Zimaniová.
Hunkovce
German day of mourning observed
A REMEMBRANCE ceremony took place on November 13 at the German war cemetery in the village of Hunkovce in the Košice region to mark the German National Day of Mourning.
The cemetery in Hunkovce contains the remains of 3,000 German soldiers who died in the Carpathian-Dukla Operation in World War II, when in October and November 1944 the Soviet army broke through into Slovakia from Poland, the TASR news agency wrote.
Norbert Simons, the German army attaché to Slovakia, attended the ceremony, along with representatives of the Slovak Armed Forces and the Interior Ministry, as well as local officials.
Simon expressed his appreciation for the spirit in which the ceremony was performed. He thanked the Prešov-based Maintenance Company - responsible for maintaining German war graves in Slovakia - for keeping the cemetery in good condition.
Hunkovce mayor Ján Franko pointed out that many 18 and 19-year-old soldiers buried in the cemetery were the victims of bad orders.
The German National Day of Mourning has been observed on the second Sunday in November since 1918.
Ceremonies to remember German soldiers killed in battle are now also held in other countries in which German war cemeteries are located.
The German war cemetery in Hunkovce was consecrated on October 8, 1995.
