BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia, May 16, 2024 (AFP) – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico fought for his life in hospital Wednesday after being shot multiple times in what the government called a “political assault”. Surgeons spent hours battling to save the 59-year-old populist leader after the attack, which has been condemned around the world. Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC he believed the leader’s hospital procedure had gone well. “I guess in the end […]
Tag: Slovakia
Stay or go? Ukraine refugees torn between safety and home
by Christophe Archambault © Agence France-Presse SIGHETU MARMATIEI, Romania (AFP) – A heartbreaking human drama is playing out along Ukraine’s borders — fleeing refugees pass the homesick going back, while others who left and then returned flee for their lives for a second time. Women and children are still pouring out of a land being pummelled by what one called Russia’s “creatures from Hell”. But hundreds of thousands of refugees are returning home, determined to […]
European leaders in defiant Kyiv trip as Russia presses in
by Danny KEMP, with Emmanuel DUPARCQ Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) – A trio of eastern European leaders met Ukraine’s president in his besieged capital Tuesday, in a defiant act of solidarity as Russian forces pressed in and air strikes claimed yet more lives in the city under curfew. As talks ground on between Moscow and Kyiv in a bid to halt the devastation, the White House upped the ante by announcing President Joe Biden […]
Slovak flying car receives official certification
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – Slovakia’s Transport Authority on Tuesday said it had issued a certificate of airworthiness for flying car model AirCar, a first step towards commercial production of the invention. “AirCar certification opens the door for mass production of very efficient flying cars,” said Stefan Klein, founder and chief executive of KleinVision, a company that designed and manufactured the prototype of the dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle. “It is an official and final confirmation of our […]
France donates 15,000 vaccine doses to Slovakia
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) — Slovakia, a country suffering the world’s highest mortality rate from Covid-19, has received a donation of 15,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from France, Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Sunday. Matovic described the Oxford-AstraZeneca doses as a “very kind and useful gift” and a “great gesture of friendship”, at a news conference with French Ambassador Christophe Leonzi, local press agency TASR reported. Speaking in Bojnice, western Slovakia, the premier added that […]
Slovak PM tests positive for Covid-19
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) — Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic said Friday he had tested positive for Covid-19, a week after he attended an EU summit in Brussels. The summit is believed to be where French President Emmanuel Macron caught the virus, leading a host of European leaders and top French officials to go into self-isolation. “Today, I am one of you,” Matovic wrote on his Facebook page, attaching a screenshot of a text message […]
Slovakia confirms first coronavirus case
VILNIUS, Slovakia (AFP) — Slovakia reported its first case of the novel coronavirus on Friday, after a man whose son visited Venice in COVID-19 hotspot Italy, tested positive. “Today, a 52-year-old patient was confirmed to be infected,” Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini told journalist Friday. He said the man, who has not been named, is currently hospitalized in Bratislava. “The patient did not travel anywhere recently but his son returned from Venice a couple of weeks […]
Sefcovic: EU commissioner vying for Slovak presidency
by Laszlo Juhasz Agence France-Presse BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – Maros Sefcovic, the ruling party’s candidate in Saturday’s Slovak presidential run-off against a government critic, is a long-time EU commissioner and career diplomat with a passion for sports. Though running as an independent, the 52-year-old European Commission vice-president has the backing of the governing populist Smer-SD party, which may have cost him first place in round one. Support for the three-party governing coalition took a hit last […]
Slovaks vote for president with outsider tipped to win
by Laszlo Juhasz / with Anna Maria Jakubek in Warsaw Agence France-Presse BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) – Slovaks vote for a new president on Saturday with the odds-on-favorite an outsider whose anti-corruption stance has resonated with voters, still reeling from the fallout from an investigative journalist’s murder. An environmental lawyer with no experience in political office, Zuzana Caputova could become the EU and eurozone member’s first female president. Her rival in the run-off election is the […]
Remains of Filipino who was fatally mauled in Slovakia to arrive on Tuesday
(Eagle News) — The remains of a Filipino financial analyst who was fatally mauled in Slovakia last month will arrive in the Philippines on Tuesday, June 19, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs said In a statement posted on Sunday, the DFA said that “the remains of Henry John Acorda will be repatriated from Bratislava on Monday on board a Slovak government aircraft that is expected to arrive in Manila at 11 a.m. […]
DFA condoles with kin of OFW killed in Slovakia
(Eagle News)~The Department of Foreign Affairs has extended its condolences to the kin of an Overseas Filipino Worker who was killed while defending two women who were being harassed in Slovakia. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of our kababayan Henry John Acorda,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement. “We mourn the loss of another of our own who by all accounts is a hero who came to the […]
Slovak president vetoes ‘discriminatory’ religion law
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) — Slovak President Andrej Kiska on Tuesday vetoed a law he called “discriminatory”, which would have made it even harder for Muslims and other religious minorities in the EU member to receive state subsidies. “This law infringes fundamental rights,” Kiska said in a statement, a couple of weeks after Slovak lawmakers adopted the legislation tabled by the right-wing Slovak National Party (SNS), a governing coalition member. The bill would have required a […]





