MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, April 24, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, April 23): PRAGUE - Websites of the Czech News Agency (CTK) on Tuesday were attacked by hackers, who released several pieces of fake news, including one about a failed assassination attempt on Slovak president-elect Peter Pellegrini. Czech daily Denik N was first to break the news. The Czech Security Information Service (BIS) and other relevant authorities are dealing with the incident. The fake news appeared on CTK's website Ceske noviny at about 11 a.m. It claimed that the Czech Republic had prevented an assassination attempt on Pellegrini planned by an Ukrainian diplomat serving in the Czech Republic. "Mr. Vitalij Usatyj, Chargé d'affaires of Ukraine in the Czech Republic, has been declared persona non grata in connection with the organisation of the assassination of Slovak President-elect Peter Pellegrini on the territory of the Czech Republic by Ukrainian citizen Marunich V.," reads the fake news article, which has already been removed from CTK's website. The Czech Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected the veracity of the information. "We categorically deny that this is true. It's a hoax. According to information available to us, it isn't from the authentic news service of CTK," said ministry spokesman Daniel Drake. The news agency later denied that the news was authentic as well. BRATISLAVA - If an election to the European Parliament had been held in the first half of April, most votes would have been garnered by Progressive Slovakia (27.2 percent), followed by Smer-SD (15.2 percent) and Voice-SD (14.2 percent), according to a poll conducted by AKO agency on behalf of TV JOJ. Also acquiring enough votes to gain at least a single MEP seat would have been Republic, KDH, SaS and Alliance. Republic would have ended up fourth on 7.5 percent, KDH 6.7 percent, SaS 6.5 percent and Alliance 5 percent. BRATISLAVA - Regional prosecutors are displeased with public criticism of processes by former Special Prosecutor's Office (USP) prosecutors following the scrapping of the USP, reads a joint statement by eight regional prosecutors that the Prosecutor-General's Office provided to TASR on Tuesday. According to the text, a criticism conducted through subjective opinions that contain obvious elements of antipathy is absolutely inappropriate. Their statement also confirmed the claim by Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka, according to whom the transfer of former USP's agenda to regional prosecutors and the Prosecutor-General's Office was carried out without any issues of consequence that would have led to the violation of rights of criminal prosecution participants. KYSUCKE NOVE MESTO - A state of emergency has been declared in the district of Kysucke Nove Mesto (Zilina region) in response to the number of bears, according to an announcement published by the village of Povina. The decision was made by the crisis management team that met following an attack by a she-bear on a 34-year-old man in the Kysuce Protected Landscape Area on Sunday (April 21). The state of emergency was declared on Monday (April 22) afternoon "due to a high risk to health and human lives as a result of the huge number of bears, changes in their behaviour and loss of shyness towards humans". The district office of Kysucke Nove Mesto said that declaring a state of emergency was necessary due to the increased risk of encounters with bears that have become used to living near humans in both the inner and outer areas of the town of Kysucke Nove Mesto and the villages in its immediate surroundings. LIPTOVSKY MIKULAS - An investigator of the police's environmental section will deal with a case in which a bear that injured five people in the centre of the town of Liptovsky Mikulas in March was shot, Police Corps Presidium spokesperson Denisa Bardyova confirmed for TASR on Tuesday. The 'We Are Forest' NGO has filed a criminal motion regarding the matter on suspicion of the unlawful killing of a protected animal. The Environment Ministry in its reaction called this "a desperate attempt by the NGO to make itself visible". "We can confirm that the criminal motion has been submitted to us. An investigator of the police's environmental section will deal with the case and will proceed in line with the law," said Bardyova, adding that she can provide no more information at the moment. The NGO's representatives announced their intention to file the criminal motion late last week. They doubt that the right bear was killed near Liptovsky Mikulas. According to the NGO, it was just a show to appease some of the public. "The bear that ran through Liptovsky Mikulas and injured five people was identified as a male weighing 80-100 kilogrammes, while the one that was shot dead was a she-bear weighing 67.9 kilogrammes. We believe that the conditions set by law weren't met in this case and that it was an accidentally shot bear that hadn't lost its fear of people and wasn't threatening people or their property with its behaviour," explained Ondrej Kameniar of 'We Are Forest'. BRATISLAVA - The Judicial Council is currently complete, and it won't comment on any future nominations, Judicial Council Office spokesperson Veronika Vasilkova has told TASR. "However, information is available to the Judicial Council Office that two of the current council members, who were elected to their posts by Parliament, will be heard before the parliamentary constitutional committee on Wednesday (April 24)," said Vasilkova. am