Overview of the week's top stories since 15 Nov. 2003

• Slovene sentenced for e-mail against Bush
• Hungarian youth gather in Lendava
• 19^th Festival of Lesbian and Gay Film opens
• Slovene Classics on DVD
• Canadian Slovenes honored in Halifax

And in other news...

• Slovene Ethnographic Museum hosts exhibition of Hungarian national costume
• DJ Umek ranks 45^th in the world

Slovene sentenced for e-mail against Bush

On 17 November, the regional court in Murska Sobota gave Tomi Sluga a four-month suspended sentence with two years probation for e-mailing a death threat to United States president George W. Bush back in 2001. Sluga, 32, sent the e-mail two weeks before Bush’s arrival in Ljubljana for the summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Sluga insisted that it was just a joke sent while he was drinking with friends.

The court thought otherwise, and convicted him of endangering the safety of a person under international protection. The maximum penalty for such a crime is ten years in prison. This was the first conviction made under new anti-terrorism laws – a group of laws which also include genocide, war crimes, international terrorism and hostage taking.

The message read: "President, save the earth, you ass, we’ll kill you in Ljubljana. Welcome!" Sluga intended to send an apology the next morning, but awoke to a message from the White House thanking him for his message to the president. He then believed that the message would never be read and that everything would be fine. Days later, however, investigators showed up at his door to search his house and confiscate his computer.

Hungarian youth gather in Lendava

From 14 to 16 November, Lendava hosted the autumn gathering of the Hungarian Youth Conference (HYC). The organization was established in 2000 in Budapest, and is sponsored by the Hungarian Ministry of Children’s and Youth Issues and Sport. The beginning of the conference saw the opening of an the information office Agora at Mlinski 3 in Lendava.

Nearly 80 young people of ethnic Hungarian origins from all over the region attended the conference. Also participating in the conference were Hungarian Minister of Youth Issues Ferenc Gurcsany and Director of the Slovene Office of Youth Affairs Sanja Vravec, as well as Lendava Youth Society president Daniel Magyar.

19^th Festival of Lesbian and Gay Film opens

The 19^th Festival of Lesbian and Gay Film will run at Slovenska Kinoteka from 30 November through 7 December. This is the oldest gay film festival in Europe. Thirteen films will be shown as part of the festival.

Two Rainer Werner Fassbinder films are also on the program: Die Bitteren Tranen der Petra von Kant (The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, 1972) and In Einem Jahr Mit 13 Monden (The Year of 13 Months, 1978). They compliment the film Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes (Water Drops on Burning Rocks), directed by François Ozon adapted from a Fassbinder screenplay, which is now playing at Ljubljana’s Kinodvor cinema.

Slovene Classics on DVD

Unfortunately, the first six titles will not have multi-lingual subtitles. The next batch, however, should have subtitles in English, German, Italian and Croatian. The films should be available in even the smallest of Slovene towns.

Canadian Slovenes honored in Halifax

On 23 November in Halifax, Slovene ambassador to Ottawa Veronika Stabej and members of the Canadian Slovene community participated in the dedication of a memorial plaque honoring Slovene immigrants to Canada. The latest census found nearly 30,000 ethnic Slovenes in Canada.

The memorial plaque reads, in both English and Slovene: "To all Slovenes who made their first steps on Canadian soil at this place and who brought Slovene culture to Canada." It is at Halifax’s famous Pier 21, which was one of the central arrival points for immigrants to Canada from 1928 until 1971. Today, it is a museum.

• On 20 November, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum at Metelkova opened an exhibition of Hungarian national costume. Nearly 400 pieces of clothing are on display dating from the 19^th and 20^th century. The exhibition was organized by the Hungarian National Ethnographic Museum of Budapest, and it runs through 29 February 2004.

• According to DJ Mag, hometown hero DJ Umek ranks 45 on the list of the top DJs in the world. Last year, he came in at 75 on the same list. More than 61,000 readers participated in the survey. The top the this year all hail from the Netherlands: Tiësto, Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buuren.