News roundup - Friday, 1 March, until 3pm

Ministry condemns Israeli attack on Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry on Thursday issued a condemnation of the firing by Israeli forces into crowds of Palestinian civilians gathered around aid trucks in Gaza. It also again urged an immediate ceasefire, the protection of civilians and sufficient humanitarian aid deliveries across Gaza. "We condemn .... attack in Gaza resulting in many hundreds starving civilians killed/injured while seeking food from humanitarian aid trucks," the ministry wrote on X on Thursday.

State prosecutor's home hit by Molotov cocktails

KOPER/LJUBLJANA - The house of a state prosecutor in Koper was hit by three Molotov cocktails last Sunday, said the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, as it condemned the attack. It appears that this was a planned and organised attack, likely related to the work of the state prosecutor, the office said in a press release. It also denounces any attempts of attacks to threaten state prosecutors.

Justice minister nominee Katič says judicial pay will be addressed in special law

LJUBLJANA - Andreja Katič, the nominee for justice minister, announced that the Constitutional Court's decision to raise judicial pay will be addressed in a special law, as she appeared before the parliamentary Judicial Committee for a hearing. Katič said she had already discussed ways of implementing the ruling with PM Robert Golob. Moreover, both she and the PM had already met with stakeholders in the judiciary and will continue to do so.

Bavčar's appeal against ECHR's 2023 ruling turned down

STRASBOURG/France - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has turned down Igor Bavčar's and Slovenia's appeals against the court's 2023 ruling which says that, in one of his Istrabenz trials, Bavčar's right to presumption of innocence was violated while there was no violation of the principle of no punishment without law, the newspaper Delo said. The court's ruling from last September is now final, and the state must pay Bavčar EUR 10,000 in damages and EUR 6,000 in costs, while he had demanded EUR 1.4 million.

Conference notes potential of small modular reactors

LJUBLJANA - Small modular reactors (SMR) could be used in the transition to a low-carbon society, where energy production will have to double by 2050 and be reliable, affordable and have low emissions, heard a conference on the role of SMRs in the Slovenian energy sector. Slovenia has a good starting point for SMRs with its nuclear programme, a research reactor active since 1966 and the Krško nuclear plant active since 1983, said Janez Gale from the Environment, Climate and Energy Ministry.

Slovenian women successfully defying obesity

LJUBLJANA - The latest survey on obesity compiled in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that the obesity rate among Slovenian women is the lowest in central Europe and puts Slovenia on the 162nd place in the world. The country ranks 63rd in terms of the share of obese men. Compared to 1990 the share of obese women was up by 1.8 percentage points to 14%, while the share of obese men increased by as many as 14 points to 26%.

Križnar wins World Cup event in Lahti with hill record

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's Nika Križnar won the women's Ski Jumping World Cup event in Finland's Lahti, after soaring to the 127-metre mark in the first round to set the new hill record, and then improving it to 131.5 metres in the second. It was the sixth individual World Cup career win for the 23-year-old, and the first this season. Križnar was joined in the top ten by her fellow Slovenian Nika Prevc (220.3 points), who finished 10th to keep her overall lead for the season.