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He was the mastermind of the mass prison break from a German camp which inspired the iconic film The Great Escape. But a new book has now suggested Spitfire pilot Roger Bushell could also have been linked to the assassination of notorious Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich, known as 'Hitler's Hangman' and the acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Simon Pearson's The Great Escaper places Bushell in Prague at the time Heydrich's car was bombed by Czechoslovakian Jan Kubiš, and Slovak Jozef Gabčík, which led to the Nazi officer's death a number of days later.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — An official says a would-be cannibal who was wounded during an undercover police operation has died in a hospital. Jaroslava Oravcova, spokeswoman for a university clinic in the eastern city of Kosice said the 43-year-old father of two died on Thursday.

From the VIS under "Pontifical Acts" - Reorganised the Greek-Catholic Slovak Church, making in a "sui iuris" Metropolitan Church and adopting the following provisions: - Elevating the eparchy of Presov for Catholics of Byzantine rite (Catholics 137,203, priests 259, permanent deacons 1, religious 111) to the status of metropolitan see and promoting Bishop Jan Babjak S.J. of Presov to the office of metropolitan archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Hazin nad Chirochou, Slovakia in 1953, he was ordained a priest in 1978 and consecrated a bishop in 2003. - Elevating the apostolic exarchate of Kosice for Catholics of Byzantine...

Slovak police seize 'enriched uranium' in raid Last Updated: 2:57am GMT 29/11/2007 Police have seized 2.2 lbs of radioactive material and arrested two people in Slovakia and one in Hungary, underlining fears in the West that terrorist groups are seeking to build a nuclear device. The Slovak news agency SITA and its counterpart in the Czech Republic, CTK, citing unconfirmed reports, said that the material was enriched uranium, an integral part of a nuclear bomb. Martin Korch, a Slovak police spokesman, would not confirm the exact nature of the material but said that it was worth $1 million (£483,000). He...

A Date Worth Remembering: August 20, 1968 by Krzys Wasilewski On August 20, 1968, the forces of the Warsaw Pact crossed the borders of Czechoslovakia to provide “fraternal help,” or rather, reinstate a hard-line communist regime. In a matter of two weeks, 200,000 soldiers from Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union quenched the liberal rebellion, burying the hopes of easing the Soviet grip in Central Europe for decades. Although it lacked the geographic importance of Poland or East Germany, Czechoslovakia still remained an important place on the map of the USSR’s influence. Shortly after the end of...

The first Slovakian engineers came into Iraq in August 2003; their primary duties are unexploded ordnance disposal and engineering work. CAMP ECHO, Iraq, March 2, 2006 — Slovakian engineer units working in Multinational Division Central-South held a change of command ceremony at Camp Echo, Ad-Diwaniyah, March 1. The 5th rotation of the Slovak Engineer Unit transferred authority to the 6th rotation composed of 100 troops. The handover ceremony was attended by authorities of the Slovakian Armed Forces, Multinational Division Central-South, senior national representatives and distinguished guests. The first Slovakian Engineers came into Iraq in August 2003 with Multinational Division Central-South....

Bratislava, 2 August (AKI/SITA) - A Slovak unit of military engineers deployed in Iraq has cleared an area of over 574,000 square meters of land mines since early March using mine-clearing devices, the Slovak defense ministry announced on Tuesday. In addition the unit has also cleared manually another 14,000 square meters of the war-ravaged country's territory, the ministry said on its web site. In five months they also destroyed 331,000 kilograms of confiscated ammunition. The 104-strong Slovak military contingent in Iraq is involved in ground and fortification works.

Payouts due for Prague victims Soviet tanks remained in Czechoslovakia until 1991 Victims of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia are to receive compensation from the Czech government. President Vaclav Klaus approved a law allowing descendants of those killed to ask for a one-off payment of up to 150,000 koruna (£3,400 or 5,000 euros). Those injured or raped by members of the invading armies between 20 August 1968 and 27 June 1991 can claim around 70,000 koruna (£1,587 or 2,331 euros). The 1968 invasion put an abrupt end to the "Prague Spring" liberal reforms. Moscow feared liberalisation in Czechoslovakia would...

Slovakia expels two Czechs for burning U.S. flag BRATISLAVA- Slovak police this morning expelled two Czech citizens who were detained when burning the U.S. flag during the address U.S. President George W. Bush made in Bratislava centre on Thursday, Bratislava police spokeswoman Silvia Mihalikova has announced. Apart from the Czechs, police also detained three Slovaks who were calling Bush names during his speech on Hviezdoslav square. However, none of the arrested persons has been accused of crime and their behaviour has been qualified as a misdemeanour only. One of the Czechs faces charges of marijuana possession since police uncovered a...

Bush presided Monday at a White House ceremony to greet the prime ministers of the new member nations along with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. With the addition of Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, NATO's membership grows from 19 countries to 26. The new members will take part in their first meeting Friday in Brussels. Three other nations - Albania, Croatia and Macedonia - hope to join. NATO has agreed to include the Baltic states under its air defense shield, planning to enforce it by stationing four F-16 fighter planes in Lithuania. The latest from Yahoo...

Turnout threatens Slovak EU poll Voting has ended in Slovakia's referendum on whether to join the European Union, amid fears that a low turnout could invalidate the poll. Just an hour before the polls closed at 1400 local time (1200 GMT), election officials and local media said only between 47% and 49% of voters had cast their ballots. Fearing turnout might not reach the 50% minimum required by law, Slovak leaders earlier made a dramatic last-minute appeal to voters to go to the polling stations. "The success of the referendum is only valid if the majority of voters take...

Kuwait, 6 March: The members of the Czech chemical warfare unit deployed in Kuwait are moving towards key objects in the country today and on Friday [7 March], Maj Vladimir Lukovsky from the Defence Ministry press department told CTK today. The AP news agency had said earlier that the Czech unit would be moving towards strategic places over the weekend. The information has been confirmed by unit spokesman Ludek Lavicka. Since activities of terrorist groups have been registered in Kuwait, local state objects are in danger. According to Lukovsky, the joint Czech-Slovak unit will start monitoring the radiation, chemical and...

Eastern Europe reacted angrily yesterday to French threats that its support for America's policy on Iraq could prove costly. Leaders heaped criticism on President Jacques Chirac, who had said Eastern Europe's "infantile" support for America might result in the European Union blocking expansion next year. President Ion Iliescu of Romania led the counter-attack, describing M Chirac's words as an affront to East Europe's newly liberated nations. "Such reproaches are totally unjustified, unwise, and undemocratic," he said in Brussels, where he was attending a post-summit gathering of East European leaders yesterday which backed the EU's tough new line on Iraq. "It...

From press reports of TASR and SITA A BISHOP has said the election of the Communist Party (KSS) to parliament shows that Slovaks are not as Catholic as they claim. Bishop Rudolf Baláž of the Banská Bystrica diocese was reportedly shocked on hearing the KSS had captured 11 seats in the 150-mandate parliament in September 20-21 elections. Jozef Hrtus, head of the Banská Bystrica diocese office, said Balaž had been particularly shocked that in the eastern Slovak district of Medzilaborce, traditionally the nation's most religious, the KSS had won outright. In the 2001 census more than 80 per cent of...