MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Sunday, February 2, 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Saturday, February 1): BRATISLAVA - The junior governing Slovak National Party (SNS) will propose that Parliament should include the elections of the House chair, the House vice-chair from the opposition ranks and STVR Council members in the agenda of its February session, reads a statement provided to TASR by the party. "Parliament has been long missing an opposition representative in the House vice-chair post. If the Progressive Slovakia (PS) fails to make use of this post, SNS suggests offering it to the Christian Democrats (KDH). Concerning the House chair election, SNS reiterated it will fully support a Voice-SD candidate," said SNS, which believes that both the coalition and the opposition will support its proposals to include new points in the session's agenda. BRATISLAVA - The House vice-chair post belongs to the strongest opposition party, i.e. Progressive Slovakia (PS), the opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) said on Saturday in reaction to the coalition Slovak National Party's proposal that a KDH representatives should hold this post, if PS fails to come up with its candidate. "Concerning the House vice-chair post, KDH has been consistently saying that we won't support such proposals by SNS, as in line with long-standing parliamentary practice, the post belongs to the strongest opposition party, which is PS," declared KDH. KIEV/BRATISLAVA - The Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) on Saturday rejected allegations of involvement in unlawful activities in Slovakia. The military intelligence agency posted this on Facebook in reaction to statements made by Slovak Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) at a news conference in Bratislava on Friday (January 31). HUR in the post stressed that it has thoroughly examined the accusations. Based on this, it officially denies having any unit called the "Georgian National Legion" within its structure. "As for the individual mentioned by Fico at the press conference, he isn't not a member of the Ukrainian military, has no ties to Ukrainian intelligence, and receives no tasks or orders from HUR. His contract with the HUR's International Legion ended in April 2023 and has not been renewed," reads the HUR's statement. FACKOV - A brown bear attacked a man on Saturday near the village of Fackov (Zilina region), Danka Capakova of the the Emergency Medical Service Operation Centre (OSZZS) informed TASR on the same day. "We can confirm that, based on a call to the emergency line 155, we sent an ambulance to the forest in Fackov this afternoon to a person who was attacked by a bear," said Capakova. Zilina regional police spokesperson Daniela Kockova confirmed that the bear attack took place in difficult-to-access forest terrain. "A police patrol was immediately sent to the scene and the brown bear response team was notified as well. After the initial treatment, the 38-years-old man was transported by helicopter to a Zilina hospital," said Kockova. ko