News roundup - Wednesday, 29 March, until 3pm

Slovenia, Croatia focussing on investment in railways

OPATIJA, Croatia - Slovenia and Croatia are increasingly focussing their infrastructure investments on railways, their infrastructure ministers Alenka Bratušek and Oleg Butković said after meeting in Croatia's Opatija. The ministers signed an agreement on the construction of a road bridge over the Kamenica stream between the villages of Božakovo and Obrež Vivodinski. This took place on the sidelines of the Slovenian-Croatian business forum on public investment in construction, hosted by the Slovenian and Croatian media companies Delo and Hanza Media.

Ex-director Dežman sacked from new Museum of Contemporary History

LJUBLJANA - Historian Jože Dežman has received a notice of termination at the new Museum of Contemporary History. The move comes after the former Museum of Contemporary History, whose director he was, was merged with another museum - the contentious Museum of Slovenian Independence set up under the previous government - into a new museum earlier this year. When the new museum was formally set up, Dežman was ordered by the employer not to come to work, but kept receiving a full director's salary. He now said he had been handed a notice of termination on Tuesday.

MENT bringing fresh batch of Europe's music talent, industry networking

LJUBLJANA - The 9th edition of the MENT music festival, which focuses on new progressive discoveries in the wider region and beyond and is accompanied by an extensive networking and music industry conference, will get under way in Ljubljana this evening. Both segments of the three day-event will foreground the Baltic region. The internationally acclaimed festival, produced by Kino Šiška and promoting independent and fresh artists, will feature 77 performers and bands this year, selected from over 1,600 applications from all around Europe.