Slovenia was regarded as the least corrupt country with the central and southeaster Europe. It was followed by Poland, a country that was once plagued with corruption issues. Hungary received the highest corruption ranking based on Transparency International’s survey.

Slovenia got a score of 6.4 while Poland got 5.3. This was based from a scale of 0 to 10, wherein 0 means “very clean” and 10 means “highly corrupt” that was set by the 2010 Corruptions Perceptions Index conducted by Transparency International.

Hungary got a score of 4.7 followed by the Czech Republic (4.6), Slovakia (4.3), Romania (3.7) and Bulgaria (3.6).

Transparency International Hungary Executive Director Noemi Alexa said that Hungary fell four tanks to the 50^th place after they have unsuccessfully implemented efficient as well as comprehensive anti-corruption actions like transparent campaign financing and procurement regulations.

Peter Bossman won during the local elections in Piran, a coastal town in Slovenia last October 24, 2010. He is a Ghana-born doctor and is regarded as Slovenia’s ever first black mayor.

Based on the final results of the run-off election, Social Democrat candidate Bossman got a tight score of 51.4% of the votes against the outgoing mayor of Piran, namely Tomaz Gantar who got 48.4%.

Slovenia’s first black mayor is 54 years old and is currently married to a Croatian doctor. The couple has two daughters. He arrived in Slovenia during the early 80’s to study medicine when the country was still part of the former Yugoslavia.

Iran’s very first ambassador to Slovenia namely Mohammad Rahim Aqaiepour has given his credentials to the country’s foreign ministry director for European Union affairs. Through establishing Iran’s embassy in Ljubljana, they will be able to sustain a balance in the diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to Aqaiepour, Tehran as well as Ljubljana must do their job to increase the cooperation in every area especially in the economic aspect.

Danilo Turk, Slovenian President had his farewell meeting at the residence of President Serzh Sargsyab. President Sargsyab and Turk had their separate meeting before he left the country to conclude the results of his visit. After which, President Turk and the delegation chaired by him were hosted in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin wherein they had a meeting with Armenian Supreme Patriarch Karekin II. Slovenian President Turk then left Yerevan.

The Slovenian government together with a part of the public sector trade unions on strike is unsuccessful on their marathon negotiations. Their negotiations will resume this Monday and at the same time, the strike continues to be in a moderate pace.

Helena Kamnar, the head of the negotiating team of the government said that the position as neared on may issues, while some of the more vital issues continues to be open so the negotiations will continue. She thinks that the Slovenian government will be back out with their pay free agreement. But Kamnar will not talk more in-depth regarding the situation.

She likewise said that both sides agreed not to talk while the negotiations are ongoing. Dusan Miščević, head of the strike committee didn’t share any details as well but they have agreed on the strike details as for now.

Slovenia is planning to buy majority of the largest bank Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) according to a local newspaper report last Tuesday.

Delo stated that currently, the Slovenian government indirectly own 48.6% of the Nova Ljubljanska Banka and wants to own over 50% of the bank’s equity. The reason behind this is to make it easier for the government to gain stability of the euro zone member’s financial system.

Until now, the government has not given comments regarding this matter. NLB plants to raise around 400 million euros or $524 million extra capital just to meet the tougher EU capital requirements. Currently, the bank holds 36% of the local market and told Reuters that there will be a capital hike during the middle of year 2011. The share holders are said to decide regarding the capital hike this November 25.

Currently, Belgian banking and insurance group KBC (KBC.BR) hold 30.6% of the NLB.

Slovenian government has planned to free until year 2012 the wages of the public sector as a part of their method to lessen the public deficit gap brought about by the worldwide crisis. This was stated by Slovenia’s Prime Minister Borut Pahor last Friday.

The government believes that his is the best strategy they can do to attain sustainability in public finances. They have planned to establish an agreement with the unions before this month ends. However, if this agreement fails, the government will continue to push this strategy through asking the parliament to pass a law freezing the wages of the public sector.

Slovenia is one of the countries that were badly struck by the worldwide economic crisis because of its dependence on their exports. This caused a decline in their gross domestic product with a rise in public deficit to 5% along with higher unemployment rates. Furthermore, this was aggravated because of the closure of different private sector companies.

The main public sector unions have warned the government that they will call a strike if they push through with his wage.

Nova Ljubljanska Banka will be receiving a capital boost coming from the government of Slovenia or a strategic companion right after the European Union stress tests revealed that Slovenia’s largest lender needs to increase their fresh funds.

According to the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, Nova Ljubljanska Banka needs a recapitalization and the needed money will be coming either from the Slovenian government or the taxpayers, or from a strategic partner.

The said Slovenian bank passed the European Unions inspection last July 23 that revealed that its capital ration would drop to 6.3% at the end of year 2011 which will happen in case a recession takes places plus a sovereign debt crisis. The Slovenian based bank will also ask from its shareholder an amount of 400 million euro or 517 million dollars capital increase this coming September.

NLB, that concentrates its business in the Balkans, will need about 600 million euros to repay their liabilities within the next 3 years.

Slovenia together with Serbia and Croatia have agreed and signed a declaration needed for the creation of the joint railway company to give a solution to the traffic at Corridor 10.

Milutin Mrkonjic, Serbian Minister of Infrastructure, stated that this new company will commence its operation this year on September 1. Slovenia, one of the countries involved in this agreement will lead the company since Slovenia is a member of the European Union.

Through the agreement and signing of this deal, the three countries involved are compelled to work on eradicating the administrative limitations particularly of the transportation of goods and passengers during the crossing of borders.

Just recently, the FBI have stated that the international law enforcement authorities have recently arrested the person responsible for the developing the malicious computer code that has attacked approximately 12 million computers plus plagued major corporations all over the world.

The suspected mastermind of this malicious computer code is a 23-year-old Slovenian and has an internet name of Iserdo. He was arrested after an in-depth investigation by the FBI, Slovenian police and Spanish authorities. He was caught after 5 months that the three hackers were arrested who were behind the cyber scam who operated the so-called Mariposa botnet that steals credits cards as well as banking credentials.