Bratislava, Slovakia News

State President Nguyen Minh Triet, his wife and entourage began an official State visit to Slovakia yesterday.

A Czech court Wednesday sent Tarek Bechara, alleged crown witness against the controversial Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir, to six years in prison for fraud worth nearly 250 million crowns.

However, there are signs that the situation is stabilising, according to this report.

Bratislava-based crude oil refiner Slovnaft will not be required to pay a fine of almost 10 million issued by the Antitrust Office of the Slovak Republic for abusing its dominant market position.

In almost 20 house searches across Slovakia, large volumes of child pornography and 29 suspects have been detained, thought to be part of an international child pornography ring, the SITA newswire reported.

I'm told that the late Rudolf Slavik was a well known "bar-dude" in Eastern Europe, although that's not where he did his shaking and stirring.

The Slovakian market may be down on last year, but Ryanair does not scale down. The airline now has a 60% share of the whole country's seat capacity, in spite of only serving Bratislava.

In Slovakia, the Bratislava airport is preparing a contract with the largest Czech private air travel company Travel Service about charter flight services from the spring of 2010.

White Crow awards are given to those rare people who change society for the better while showing courage, a better-than-average sense of justice and public good, and a persistent faith in personal principles.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana, is set to become more visible on the political map of the 27-nation EU as the city has been selected to house the union's Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators , designed to boost the idea of a single European market in electricity and gas.

Slovak President Ivan Gasparovie started his official two-day visit to Serbia on Thursday.

By Lisa Chapman Austrian oil and gas producer OMV is to manage its operations in the Czech Republic and Hungary from Bratislava to save money, according to Czech newspaper Hospodarske noviny.

A spokeswoman for a hospital in Slovakia says conjoined twins who underwent an operation to be separated have died.

In Bratislava's University Hospital, connate twins were born on December 3. Immediately after their birth, they were taken for care at the Children's Hospital.

Political analyst Grigorij Meseznikov considers the second round of Slovakia's regional elections to be unsurprising, he told the TASR newswire on November 29.

The 20th anniversary of the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe continue to serve as inspiration for a peaceful transition from totalitarianism to democracy, but some are disappointed by persistent economic hurdles.

Smer considers the result of the runoffs in the regional elections a success, said Prime Minister and party chairman Robert Fico, as reported by the SITA newswire.

It's taken almost 60 years for Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental to talk about living in the death camps in Germany.

The campaign for Saturday's second round of the regional elections has ended with an election moratorium now in place, the TASR newswire wrote.

In Slovakia the events of1989 are remembered as the "Gentle Revolution" marked by non-violent demonstrations.