SUMMARY-Friday-March 15, 2019 - 10 p.m.

BRATISLAVA - State-run passenger rail operator ZSSK has agreed with trade unions on salary growth in 2019 and 2020 within collective bargaining, TASR learnt from ZSSK spokesperson Tomas Kovac on Friday. SENICA - US Ambassador to Slovakia Adam Sterling went to the Zahorie area (western Slovakia near the border with the Czech Republic) on Friday as part of his series of working and fact-finding visits to Slovak towns, TASR was informed by spokesperson for the town of Senica (Trnava region) Viera Baroskova on the same day. BRATISLAVA - Slovak President Andrej Kiska sent a telegram of condolences on Friday to Governor-General of New Zealand Dame Patsy Reddy in response to the terrorist attack that took place in Christchurch earlier on the same day. BRUSSELS - Among all the European countries interested in hosting the seat of the European Labour Authority (ELA), Slovakia is furthest forward in the process of lobbying for the agency, Labour Minister Jan Richter (Smer-SD) told TASR in Brussels on Friday. BRATISLAVA - The coalition Most-Hid party stated on Friday that consumers should be informed about the origin of the food that they consume. BRATISLAVA - A new element in the upcoming presidential election is that the results will be published even at the level of electoral districts, chairman of the Statistics Office Alexander Ballek stated on Friday. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia and the Netherlands have excellent bilateral relations and work closely together, Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak (a Smer-SD nominee) and the head of Dutch diplomacy Stef Blok concurred in Bratislava on Friday. BRATISLAVA - The police reported on Friday that they broke up an international organised gang of people smugglers on Monday, detaining twelve suspects who have been charged with the crime of people smuggling. BRATISLAVA - I have no information about Lubos Kosik, a former member of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS), who was allegedly kidnapped from his house in the Malian capital Bamako in January, TASR learnt on Friday from actor and singer Ibrahim Maiga, who is Kosik's friend and is originally from the West African country. BRATISLAVA - The Administration Board of the Nation's Memory Institute (UPN) has elected Jan Palffy to the post of UPN Administration Board chair on Friday, TASR learnt from UPN spokesman Jergus Sivos. am