POLITICS
NEW DELHI, India - President Danilo Tuerk addressed on Friday the opening of the 10th World Summit on Sustainable Development in New Delhi, saying that the international community faces great challenges that require immediate action. One of the goals should be a legally-binding agreement on dealing with climate change, the president said, adding that wow is the time to establish where the international community is at and how it can make progress this year towards a final solution. Results of the process, which will culminate at the UN climate change conference in Ciudad de Mexico, must be comprehensive, balanced, fair and legally-binding, Tuerk said.
SEMIC - PM Borut Pahor said following the cabinet's visit to the regions of Bela krajina and Kocevsko (SE) on Friday that there will be no special law dedicated to boosting the development of Bela krajina. Instead, the situation will be addressed with a law on balanced and regional development. Local officials however insisted they expect tangible solutions. Transport infrastructure is major problem for both regions, and Transport Ministry State Secretary Igor Jakomin said that it is necessary to speed up the preparatory stages of construction.
ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor expressed her hope in Zagreb on Friday that she and Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor would soon discuss all open issues between the two countries, including the issue of Croatian savers of the defunct Ljubljanska banka. Kosor said Pahor and she planned to hold new meetings. "After we successfully agreed on separating Croatia's EU accession negotiations from the border dispute with Slovenia, we all also agreed to put all remaining open issues on the table," Kosor told the press.
ISTANBUL, Turkey - NATO defence ministers are optimistic about the prospects for Afghanistan, but they warn that 2010 will be the key year, Slovenian Defence Minister Ljubica Jelusic said after the conclusion of a two-day NATO ministerial in Istanbul on Friday. All 44 countries participating in the ISAF stabilisation force are optimistic and 34 promised troops increases, Jelusic told STA in a phone conversation. Slovenia did not promise more soldiers, but it will take charge of its own Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) tasked with training of Afghan security forces.
ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor expressed her hope in Zagreb on Friday that she and Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor would soon discuss all open issues between the two countries, including the issue of Croatian savers of the defunct Ljubljanska banka. Kosor said Pahor and she planned to hold new meetings. "After we successfully agreed on separating Croatia's EU accession negotiations from the border dispute with Slovenia, we all also agreed to put all remaining open issues on the table," Kosor told the press.
ISTANBUL, Turkey - NATO defence ministers are optimistic about the prospects for Afghanistan, but they warn that 2010 will be the key year, Slovenian Defence Minister Ljubica Jelusic said after the conclusion of a two-day NATO ministerial in Istanbul on Friday.All 44 countries participating in the ISAF stabilisation force are optimistic and 34 promised troops increases, Jelusic told STA in a phone conversation. Slovenia did not promise more soldiers, but it will take charge of its own Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) tasked with training of Afghan security forces.
LJUBLJANA - The latest monthly survey of the Nova Gorica Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, published on Friday, puts the approval rating for the Slovenian government at just over 35%, the lowest since the poll was launched in April 2009. The opposition Democrats (SDS) dominate the poll with 18.9%, followed by the senior coalition Social Democrats (SD) with 13.7%. As many as 16.7% were undecided and just over 7% said they would not turn out.
LJUBLJANA - Secretary general of the previous government, Bozo Predalic, filed on Thursday a lawsuit against the incumbent Milan M. Cvikl over his allegation of massive unauthorised photocopying of government archives. A year after the scandal broke Predalic stated that Cvikl should be given the opportunity to prove his accusations in court.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's largest banking group, NLB, made a loss of EUR 80m in 2009, daily Dnevnik writes on Friday. The bank refused to comment on the report, saying that annual results would be examined by the supervisory board next Thursday. Reporting on the results of NLB in 2009, Dnevnik blames the loss on large provisions and markdowns of assets as well as a large loss at its German subsidiary, LHB Frankfurt.
LJUBLJANA - Head of the negotiating team of a part of public sector trade unions, Janez Posedi, said on Friday that the government's goal of annually decreasing the number of public servants by 1% or 1,600 would be difficult to meet. "This is the government's theory. It is true that we did not oppose this, but we doubt that it is possible to achieve it. Many offices are understaffed as it is," Posedi told STA after the government confirmed the public sector cuts on Thursday as part of its 2010-2013 crisis strategy.
LJUBLJANA - The struggling Slovenian state-owned rail operator deems German rail operator Deutsche Bahn as the most serious partner for a potential tie-up, Slovenske zeleznice boss Goran Brankovic told Friday's edition of weekly Mladina. Slovenske zeleznice will talk to other operators, "but all circumstances considered, we see Deutsche Bahn as the best solution". "However, the main criterion for cooperation will be the proceeds that Slovenske zeleznice are hoping for," he said.
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian subsidiary of Austrian insurer Wiener Staedtische posted gross written revenues of EUR 12.1m in 2009, up 42% over the year before, the company said Friday. Life insurance premiums increased 51% to EUR 8.4m, accounting for 70% of total premiums. Property insurance premiums rose 23% to EUR 3.6m.
AJDOVSCINA - The director and owner of ultra-light plane maker Pipistrel, Ivo Boscarol, told STA on Friday that his company approached "the crisis as a challenge, the result being a 60% increase in turnover in 2009 compared to the year before". Boscarol said on a sidelines of the opening of a new culture and media centre in Ajdovscina that Pipistrel had recorded more than EUR 1m in profit last year.
LJUBLJANA - After two positive days, the indices on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange were dragged down Friday by losses of the NKBM bank and drug maker Krka. The benchmark SBI 20 index ended at 4,088.25 points, down 0.44%, and the SBI TOP index of the eight blue chips shed 0.56% to 988.11 points.
HEALTH
LJUBLJANA - After a woman nearly died when delivering a baby at home last Saturday, the Health Ministry announced on Friday some legislative changes that would regulate the possibility of giving birth outside hospitals. Head of the ministry's Directorate for Health Protection Janez Remskar noted that while Slovenian legislation did not ban home births, Slovenian midwives were not adequately trained nor equipped for this. Talks are being conducted on expanding the powers of midwifes, provided they also get the necessary training and practice, he added.
ARTS & CULTURE
LJUBLJANA - The largest confederation of trade unions, ZSSS, and the GLOSA union of cultural workers pointed to discrimination in Slovenian culture at a press conference ahead of Culture Day, 8 February. Employees in culture have been treated as second rate for decades, Doro Hvalica of GLOSA said. While admitting that certain measures had been introduced in recent years, Hvalica said there were still a lot of problems. He stressed that employees in culture were discriminated in terms of their pay, while there was practically no new hiring.
CRIME
KOPER - Somali pirates hijacked a ship owned by Slovenian maritime transport company Splosna plovba in the Gulf of Aden for a few hours on Friday morning. According to the company, international military units liberated the ship along with its 24 crew members, none of whom were hurt. Splosna plovba was notified about the hijacking of Ariella, a freight ship that had no Slovenians on board, by the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre. The ship, which was headed from the Black Sea to Indonesia, was transporting 30,000 tonnes of intermediate steel products.
KRANJ - Two men suspected of being involved in the October 2009 bomb attack on a night club in the city of Kranj were put on trial on Friday at the Kranj District Court. Damir Muzaferovic and Dzevad Velic said they did not remember details of the night because they were drunk and blamed each other for the explosion. The explosion of a M-75 hand grenade injured eight people and damaged seven cars, two buses and the windows of a hotel near the Million Club. The suspects fled the scene only to be apprehended by police the next day.