Vienna  - Ailing low-cost carrier SkyEurope reported Tuesday that passenger numbers dropped by 23.5 per cent in January, compared with the same month of the previous year.

The Slovakia-based airline, which is listed on the Vienna stock exchange, has said it would reduce capacity by some 19 per cent during the winter months of 2009.

SkyEurope's operating losses more than doubled to 56.1 million euros (72.8 million dollars) in the 2007/08 business year running until September, according to preliminary figures published last November.

Bratislava  - The Slovak parliament Tuesday overruled a presidential veto on a law that allows use of Hungarian place names in textbooks for country's Hungarian minority.

The house overrode the veto in a 106-32 vote, while 12 lawmakers were absent. An absolute majority of 76 votes in the 150-seat house was required to throw out the veto issued by President Ivan Gasparovic in December.

Essen, Germany - Slovakia, which has been hard hit by the Russian-Ukrainian gas delivery crisis has found a white knight in the form of Germany's RWE Power, which has promised Saturday to make gas deliveries.

The RWE deliveries are to begin Sunday morning with an increase of deliveries to begin on Tuesday, the company based in the western German city of Essen said.

The company has been working since Thursday to make possible a west-to-east flow of gas, something that has never been done before, reported the company.

Vienna  - The Austrian government protested Sunday Bratislava's decision to reopen the Bohunice nuclear power plant complex, which was prompted by the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute that has left Slovakia without energy reserves.

"Recommissioning the unsafe Bohunice reactor cannot be accepted," Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said of the decision to power up the reactor that had been closed at the end of last year.

"Contracts must hold within a community. Shutting off the plant was one of the fundamental conditions for (Slovakia's) entry (into the European Union) , and it cannot simply be cancelled now," Berlakovich said in a statement.

Bratislava  - The Slovakian government decided in an extraordinary session Saturday night to reopen its Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power plant closed at the beginning of the year as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute.

"I am aware that we are violating our accession agreement with the European Union with this decision, and I accept the full political responsibility for it," Prime Minister Robert Fico said during a press conference broadcast on TV news channel TA3.

Bratislava  - The Slovakian government decided in an extraordinary session Saturday night to reopen its Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power plant closed at the beginning of the year as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute.

"I am aware that we are violating our accession agreement with the European Union with this decision, and I accept the full political responsibility for it," Prime Minister Robert Fico said during a press conference broadcast on TV news channel TA3.