Overview of the week's top stories
since 22 September 2001

A pilot noticed the graffiti early that morning, and airport officials ordered a bomb sweep of the plane. The sweep found nothing, the graffiti was removed and the plane later made its scheduled flight to Germany.

Police have taken a 24-year old from Kranj into custody. The man was employed by Brnik to clean the airplanes, and allegedly during his shift, he vandalized the plane. So far, he has only been charged with disorderly conduct, but the incident has sparked increased security at Brnik – including security checks of all employees.

Over the past ten years, parliament did not declare any national day of mourning, or even devote much comment, to tragedies taking place in near-by Bosnia, such as the siege of Sarajevo or the massacre at Srebrenica. From 1918 until 1991, Slovenia and Bosnia were both part of the same country, Yugoslavia.

The SMS fear that the government’s actions show that human life has no worth, and that the only things with any value today are capital and military strength, according to the daily Delo.

The terrorist attacks in the United States continued to have repercussions this week, as the country explored ways to fight terrorism. Foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel told POP-TV over the weekend that the country will discuss several "concrete forms of cooperation" with Washington in various fields, including police, security and military.

Most likely Slovenia’s role in the war on terrorism will be in the exchange of intelligence information and police and military cooperation, according to the foreign minister.

The country also allied itself with statements made this week in support of the United States by the European Union. The EU passed a decision and plan of action calling for the strengthening of police and judicial cooperation, a standardized definition of terrorism and compilation of a list of terrorist organizations, among other things which Slovenia also supports.

Senior EU enlargement negotiator Graham Avery told Reuters that expansion of the EU will be a major contribution in and of itself to the war on terrorism. The strengthening of border controls as part of the Schengen agreement will be significant. Avery also highlighted the sense of solidarity expansion brings. "Enlarging the territory of the EU will help us all to be able to conduct this fight together." Avery said.

The latest installment of the monthly public opinion poll Politibarometer, prepared by the Center for Public Opinion Research of the Faculty of Social Studies in Ljubljana focused on regional issues in September. Of the 916 polled, some 50 per cent maintain that regional policies are too centralized, while only 28.6 per cent believe that it is best that key institutions are located in the capital.

The question of how to resolve the problem of centralization got varied answers. Most, 47 per cent, were in favor of better transportation links among regions. Other responses included giving more influence to regional centers (20 per cent) and moving state institutions to other regions (15.7).

The highest number of tourists visited Ljubljana in August – 69 per cent more than last year. The trend continued into September, and the Institute for Tourism predicts that by the end of the month, the figure will be no less than 50 per cent more than last September.

But the biggest factor was surely the Bush-Putin summit held in Ljubljana in June. Hundreds of foreign journalists came to Slovenia and made the country a regular feature of newspapers the world over all summer.

One of the best examples is the travel feature on Slovenia that ran in August in the travel section of the New York Times. The country was featured on the front page, and two substantial articles with four-color photos were included. At the end of August, Ljubljana was also featured on CNN, in its Hotspots travel show.

Excellent coverage continued this month. On 17 September, London’s Independent ran a raving travel article about Piran, calling it the Venice of Slovenia.

Coverage began moving beyond just travel articles and delving deeper into Slovenia with the latest, October, issue of the UK magazine Wallpaper. The article "LJ Confidential" cuts through the tourist fluff and highlights trends and trendsetters in Slovene design, architecture, real estate, digital & new media, art, media, fashion, retail and food & drink.

According to writer Birna Helgadottir, the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit and "a few bat-squeaks by Bjork" managed to make Reykjavik "the new Rio." Predictions have run rampant for years that Ljubljana is to be the "next Prague," and Helgadottir thinks that the Bush-Putin summit may have been the final push the city needed.

From 26 to 29 September, Ljubljana’s Metelkova hosted an international youth camp dedicated to debating the pros and cons of the European Union. The camp was organized by Neutro and more than 20 foreign and local NGOs critical to the EU and EU enlargement participated.

The pro-EU stance was articulated by such guests as Andrej Horvat, the Undersecretary of the Agency for Regional Development and Alja Brglez, the director of the government Office for Information.

The camp included a program of seminars, discussions, lectures and workshops that covered such topics as nonviolent communication, the organization of peaceful protests and the production of propaganda materials. A cultural program was also organized, including a showing of amateur videos taken at the Genoa and Goeteborg anti-globalization protests earlier this year.