IN AN INDUCTION ceremony on November 4 in Bratislava, Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič named new ambassadors to Croatia, Italy, Mexico and Kazakhstan, the TASR news wire reported.
Ján Baňás, former KDH regional secretary in Trnava, best known as a former chess master, is the new Slovak ambassador to Croatia. Career diplomats Stanislav Vallo and Jozef Adamec will serve in Italy and Mexico respectively and former director of the Normalization and Metrology Institute Dušan Podhorský will take the post in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Podhorský, however, has a black spot in his past. He is registered as having been an agent in the ŠtB files. The National Security Office had been verifying his past activities but the investigation was interrupted. However, the Foreign Affairs Ministry concluded that Podhorský is a suitable person to represent Slovakia.
