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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993                   TAG: 9303030294
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA                                LENGTH: Short

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SLOVAKIA GETS FIRST PRESIDENT

Michal Kovac was sworn in Tuesday as Slovakia's first president. He promised to protect his new country's Hungarian minority, seeking to defuse an issue that has created strains in Eastern Europe since the fall of communism.

Slovakia gained independence Jan. 1 after the split of Czechoslovakia, which was formed in 1918 from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

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