Slovak mountain rescue service safeguards tourism and people's lives

STORY: Slovak mountain rescue service safeguards tourism and people's lives SHOOTING TIME: March 21, 2024 DATELINE: March 24, 2024 LENGTH: 00:04:26 LOCATION: Bratislava CATEGORY: SOCIETY SHOTLIST: 1. SOUNDBITE (English): IGNOR ZIAK, Deputy Director of the Mountain Rescue Service of Slovakia 2. various of the Mountain Rescue Service building STORYLINE: Slovak Mountain Rescue Service, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, is under the Slovak Ministry of Interior Affairs. The Tatras Mountains in northern Slovakia is popular among sports lovers in Central Europe for skiing and hiking, particularly its Jasna Ski Resort, the largest of its kind in Central Europe. Ignor Ziak, Deputy Director of the Mountain Rescue Service of Slovakia, told Xinhua that they have done around 1,200 rescues during the year of 2023, mainly in the winter. They provide rescue service for skiers at the ski resorts as well as climbers in other mountainous areas. They also provide avalanche danger warnings based on scientif

WWII flags

WWII flags

Photo taken June 25, 2018 in Astoria, Oregon shows Obon Society founders Keiko Ziak (R) and her husband Rex examining a Yosegaki Hinomaru flag sent to the organization from an American family. The nonprofit venture, which returns these WWII-era souvenirs collected by Allied Forces from Japanese soldiers who died in battle to surviving relatives, receives around four to five flags per day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

WWII flags

WWII flags

Obon Society co-founder Rex Ziak explains during a luncheon in Santa Barbara, California, (on May 14, 2018) how the organization's scholars analyze Yosegaki Hinomaru -- WWII-era "good luck flags" collected by Allied Forces from Japanese soldiers who died in battle - to determine the flag's origins. The nonprofit organization is searching for surviving families of original owners of around 900 such flags and has returned more than 200 flags since its founding in 2009. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

U.S. group returns Rising Sun flags to Japan

U.S. group returns Rising Sun flags to Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) receives a Japanese flag of the Rising Sun from a U.S. couple at his office in Tokyo on Aug. 4, 2015. The flag, returned by Rex (C) and Keiko Ziak, is one of such flags collected by OBON 2015, a U.S.-based group cofounded by Rex to help U.S. veterans return Japanese flags, brought home as souvenirs from World War II battlefields, to bereaved families of Japanese soldiers. The flags are filled with good luck messages from soldiers' families. A total of 70 flags were returned in commemoration of this summer's 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo