Several districts in northern Slovakia and nearly the entire east of the country should prepare for heavy rainfall in the coming hours The rainfall may also result in local flash floods The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ) issued a first-level warning against rainfall for two districts of northern Slovakia (namely Liptovský Mikuláš and Tvrdošín) and nearly the entire eastern part of the country The warning will be in place from 22:00 until 9:00 tomorrow Meteorologists are also warning against floods The warning was issued for the districts of Ružomberok Tvrdošín and Námestovo and will be in place until tomorrow morning An Antonov An-124 Ruslan heavy transport aircraft touched down at Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport in Bratislava in the early hours of today bringing in nearly 3 million pieces of antigen tests for the upcoming nation-wide mass testing of the Slovak population for COVID-19 For Phase 1 of the nation-wide screening for COVID-19 members of the Slovak Armed Forces have since this morning taken over emergency equipment from the State Material Reserves warehouses the supplies will be distributed by the SVK military to respective Regional Commands and redistributed to the testing sites across Orava and Bardejov military personnel are continuing the preparations for the COVID-19 mass test pilot On the provision of material for this purpose the Ministry of Defence appreciates any aid in the form of donations such as the paper tissues and office paper gifted by Mondi SCP from Ružomberok These will be used for the test pilot in Dolný Kubín Medical personnel and volunteers willing to help can register at www.korona.gov.sk. Updates on the nation-wide mass testing for COVID-19 are available to the public on the MOD website at www.mosr.sk the director of the Bulgarian elementary and high school in Bratislava who wore a black blouse richly decorated with Bulgarian folk motifs were carefully placing hardboiled eggs into bowls with red In order to complement the Bulgarian embassy’s efforts to bring Bulgarian cuisine and culture to the Slovak audience they decorated the eggs using different techniques passed down through families to the young to preserve the spirit of Easter “We wanted to bring you traditional Bulgarian dishes that are typical for the Easter period,” said Margarita Ganeva when introducing the menu she created for the Cooking with Ambassadors programme prepared by The Slovak Spectator and TV Sme adding that these particular dishes are also made for traditional celebrations the iconic shopska salad and the kozunak cake but have deep symbolism and tradition in Bulgarian cuisine “the lamb is born in the spring” and lamb dishes are linked to Easter and the sacrificial lamb the lamb they prepared did not come from Bulgaria one of the largest producers and exporters of lamb meat but from Tvrdošín in northern Slovakia “The other thing is that we Bulgarians have a reputation for eating healthy and practically all the recipes I want to introduce to Slovaks are healthy,” Ganeva said The shopska salad - a mixed salad with Balkan cheese - is undoubtedly healthy and one would think that it needs little introduction Slovaks might be surprised to learn that many of the “shopska” salads they are served in local restaurants differ from the original recipe “We prepared the shopska salad especially for this programme because we wanted to offer the original recipe which is not really used anywhere in Europe because everyone mixes something of their own into it,” Ganeva said while placing authentic shopska ingredients into a glass bowl The Bulgarian ambassador explains that the salad “What is most important is not to put olives or lettuce into this salad because these ingredients do not belong there [in the traditional shopska salad],” Ganeva said Another well-known Bulgarian product is rose water which has a deeply rooted tradition in Bulgaria and is produced from roses grown in central Bulgaria’s so-called rose valleys found its way into the food industry as well in the form of rose jam or chips with rose oil “The best period for rose collection is May and the first weeks of June when you pass through central Bulgaria in the rose valley around the towns of Karlovo or Sopot and people can inhale the rose[-scented] air,” Ganeva said explaining that the oil is made from a specific type of rose When asked to compare Slovak and Bulgarian cuisine Ganeva said one shared feature is that both Slovakia and Bulgaria produce a lot of vegetables Bulgarians consume more of them than Slovaks: “Regardless of whether it is dinner there is always some vegetable which belongs on the table.” The production of different kinds of cheeses is another shared tradition is that Bulgarians do not really fry their food modern Bulgarians still view wine not only as a drink but more as culture adding that Bulgaria’s sunny climate is conducive to red wine “There is a very nice song [in Bulgaria]: the nicest white wine is red,” Ganeva concluded “This explains a lot: it is not the colour but how one who tastes it feels and has a special relation to what he or she has on their table.” The prime minister repeated that he refuses to allow the emergence of "compact Muslim communities in Slovakia" as he announced Slovakia will not ratify the Istanbul Convention as a whole Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on February 22 that Slovakia will not ratify the Istanbul Convention as long as doubts persist about its accordance with the Slovak Constitution particularly its paragraph about marriage as a bond between a man and a woman Fico’s statement came on the heels of protests against the Convention organised by people from conservative Christian circles One such protest was staged in the northern-Slovak town of Tvrdošín on February 10 Instead of ratifying the Istanbul Convention as a whole Fico proposes to introduce national laws that would increase the protection of women from domestic violence “Any violence against women is unacceptable and has no place in our society,” Fico said as quoted by the Sme daily and added that the protection of women’s rights is particularly important at a time when migrants make up more and more of the European population and bring with them “cultural and social patterns from their countries of origin” including the perception of a woman as a submissive human being “I am against the emergence of compact Muslim communities in Slovakia on principle,” Fico said “So that these communities are not able to preserve the habits that Europe and its Christian historical roots refute as wrong and unjust.” Christian Churches in Slovakia issued a joint statement earlier on February 22 speaking against the Istanbul Convention and calling on the government to withdraw its signature from the document labelled the Convention “controversial” “We are in favour of the protection of women from any violence whatsoever but we cannot agree with the ideologies that present equality as sameness and go as far as to deny the differences between men and women,” the statement reads SLOVAKIA’S heritage received a welcome boost when eight rare wooden churches were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 7 The churches join six other Slovak sites already on the list SLOVAKIA’S heritage received a welcome boost when eight rare wooden churches were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 7 The World Heritage Committee added two Roman Catholic churches and three Greek Catholic churches built between the 16th and 18th centuries The Roman Catholic churches are in Hervartov and Tvrdošín; the Protestant churches are in Kežmarok Hronsek and Leštiny; and the Greek Catholic churches are in Bodružal Ladomirová and Ruská Bystrá They all present good examples of a rich local tradition of religious architecture marked by the meeting of Latin and Byzantine cultures and Slovak heritage protection officials called the decision a sign of great appreciation for Slovakia’s historical treasures and a move that could attract more international attention to the sites “Inscribing the wooden churches onto the list acknowledges the exceptional value of the wooden sacred architecture located in Slovakia in this part of the Carpathian Mountain Area,” Katarína Kosová the general director of the Slovakia’s Monuments Board “The move will put Slovakia on the cultural world map.” being included in the list puts a greater obligation on the country to care for these edifices Inclusion in the World Heritage List can undoubtedly increase the tourism potential of the country because UNESCO sites are often the subject of attractive travel packages offered by both travel agencies and tourism boards small towns and villages that are often quite distant from major tourist attractions might be able to benefit from the international attention The Greek Catholic Church was enthusiastic about the UNESCO designation and said that the church has long been working on the preservation of these sites which shows how Eastern and Western cultures can be intertwined the churches are under the patronage of the Petra non-governmental organisation The Roman Catholic Church welcomed the move because the Catholic Church does not have many wooden churches compared to the number of other churches “We are glad that the world has noticed them,” Košice Bishop Bernard Bober told the SITA newswire Though the date of its construction is unknown the church in Hervartov is the oldest preserved type of wooden church in Slovakia.” It took the Monuments Board almost 10 years to prepare the wooden churches' nomination “Initially we considered cooperation with Poland then with Ukraine and then also with Hungary where there are wooden bell towers in the east,” Kosová told The Slovak Spectator “We wanted to have a grandiose project to show a European approach.” the board made its own selection of churches wooden churches are mostly associated with Eastern Slovakia and the Greek Catholic Church But Slovakia also has interesting wooden Protestant and Roman Catholic churches “The Roman Catholic churches are interesting as they interpret gothic architecture and its principles in wood,” said Kosová said that its inclusion on the list will not really change how the church operates but certainly will bring more tourists to the village Slovakia currently has six sites on the UNESCO list: the historic mining town of Banská Štiavnica and its surrounding technical monuments; Bardejov's town centre; Spiš Castle and its associated cultural monuments; the village of Vlkolínec; the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst caves (shared with Hungary); and the primeval beech forests of the Carpathians (shared with Ukraine).