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Sales in Vehicle Market Down in 2009 with Exception of Buses

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - Car dealerships last month and over the past 11 months have seen the sales of new vehicles largely slump year-on-year, according to Slovak Automotive Association (ZAP) data out on Friday. The sale of under-3.5 ton passenger cars and small-size trucks was down 23.33 percent to 5,104 in the month of November and 4.37 percent to 83.886 in… read more

722 Slovaks Have Contracted A(H1N1) Flu So Far, With Three Fatalities

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - During this past week, 299 new A(H1N1) flu cases have been registered in Slovakia, increasing the total number of all cases to 722, TASR has learned from the Public Health Office. Most of the people contracted the virus in Slovakia, with most cases registered in Bratislava region (108) and the fewest in Trencin region (10). The new viral… read more

Number of Threatened Jobs Rose to 43,000 in Mid-November

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - The number of threatened jobs has been rising steadily since the beginning of this year - from 9,553 in January to 42,992 in mid-November, the Economy Ministry reported on its website on Friday. Out of the total figure of jobs that are under threat, however, only 25,000 people were actually dismissed over the period, according to the Labour,… read more

Gasparovic: Thanks to Serbia for Care for Slovak Minority in Vojvodina

Novi Sad, December 4 (TASR) - Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic on Friday expressed thanks to the Serbian Government for its care for the community of ethnic Slovaks living in Serbia's autonomous province of Vojvodina. "I also want to praise the (local) Slovaks that have maintained their relation to their mother country and the culture of their parents. And I also want… read more

Busy Weekend Planned forSmer-SD at Incheba Exhibition Centre

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - Slovakia's strongest political party Smer-SD is scheduled to hold two meetings this coming weekend. The first is planned for Saturday night, when the party's executive will discuss the party's annual convention marking the 10th anniversary of the party on Sunday, party spokesperson Katarina Klizanova Rysova said on Friday. The Saturday… read more

More than Half a Million Slovaks Seen at Poverty Risk

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - The latest European Union poll Eurobarometer on poverty for 2009 reveals that last year there were some 595,000 people or 11 percent of the population at risk of poverty in a member country of 5.4 million named Slovakia. As well, no less than 79 percent of respondents told pollsters they perceive poverty as highly widespread. The… read more

Parliament Declines to Raise Lifetime Salary for Former Presidents

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - The Slovak Parliament has decided on Friday that the lifetime salaries for former Slovak presidents received after they leave office won't be increased in the future. Parliament has declined the Constitutional Officials' Salaries Act amendment proposal drafted by independent MP Frantisek Miklosko (elected KDH but now KDS/Conservative Democrats… read more

European Commission Grants Registration of Tokaj Wine to Hungary

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - The European Commission registered and granted the brand name 'Tokaj' to Hungary, and not to Slovakia, said Agriculture Minister Vladimir Chovan (LS-HZDS) at a press conference on Friday. "We can't accept that one EU member state was granted the registration and the other wasn't. Our mission is now to secure that the brand name 'Tokaj'… read more

Gasparovic Holds Discussion with Serbian Parliamentary Chair

Belgrade, December 4 (TASR) - Serbian Parliamentary Speaker Slavica Dukic Dejanovic has conveyed her delight at Friday's meeting with visiting Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic over the fact that the Slovak minority in Serbia is also represented in the Executive Council of Vojvodina. Dukic Dejanovic has also called on ethnic-Slovak representatives to increase their interest… read more

Meciar: No Agreement, So We Abstained from Voting on Media Complex

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - There was no prior agreement between LS-HZDS and the other two Coalition parties on building the media complex on state land, so the party's MPs abstained from voting on it in Parliament, LS-HZDS leader Vladimir Meciar said on Friday. His comments came in reaction to Parliament's rejection earlier in the day of Dusan Jarjabek's (Smer, formerly… read more

Liga-OLS and European Democratic Party to Merge Into a Single Party

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - Representatives of non-parliamentary parties Liga-OLS and European Democratic Party (EDS) have opted to merge and will enter the 2010 Parliamentary Elections as a single entity, Liga-OLS Chairman Robert Nemcsisc announced at a joint press conference on Friday. "We've decided for a complete merger ... the forming of a single party that would… read more

SRo and STV Not Able to Build on State Premises

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - State-owned Slovak Radio (SRo) and Slovak Television (STV) will not be able to build their joint premises on land owned by the state as MPs rejected the proposed STV and SRo Act amendment in Parliament on Friday. The proposal was submitted by Dusan Jarjabek (Smer). From the Coalition parties, the proposal was supported by Smer and… read more

SaS: Our Proposals More Social Than Those of \'Social Democrat Gov\'t

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - Governing parties have passed anti-social bills that don't stimulate growth or maintain jobs and are legislatively bad, said Freedom and Solidarity (Sloboda a Solidarita/Sas) non-parliamentary party Vice-chairman Jozef Mihal at a press conference on Friday. SaS representatives harbour particular objections to the Parental Benefit Act. "Differing… read more

LS-HZDS Party Gremium To Decide On Urbani\'s Ousting on Saturday

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - LS-HZDS party executive council is most likely to decide on ousting of its member Milan Urbani at council session on Saturday, council's chairman Marian Klenko told TASR on Friday. Urbani was given a political ultimatum - leave the party voluntarily or the party's gremium will submit a proposal for his exclusion on December 5, said LS-HZDS… read more

Analysts: Slovak Economy Hit Rock Bottom in 1Q09 and Is Rebounding

Bratislava, December 3 (TASR) - The Slovak economy has grown quarter-on-quarter by 1.6 percent in 3Q09, representing the second highest increase among the EU27 during this period, the Slovak Statistics Office reported on Thursday. At the same time, the country's economy fell y-o-y in the third quarter of this year by 4.8 percent in fixed prices. UniCredit Bank… read more