MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - 9.00 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, October 22): BRATISLAVA - A new, now third version of the court map envisages the scrapping of four district courts, Justice Minister Maria Kolikova told a news conference on Friday. Originally, the number of such courts should have been reduced from 54 to 30. Courts to be scraped are district courts in Partizanske (Trencin region), Skalica (Trnava region), Banovce nad Bebravou (Trencin region) and Kezmarok (Presov region). The changes should also concern regional courts. The minister plans to preserve all of eight of them, but organise them into three groups. Central regional courts should thus be located in Trnava (for the western-Slovak region), Zilina (for the central-Slovak region) and Presov (for the eastern-Slovak region), with branch offices in the other regional centres. BRUSSELS - Energy conclusions agreed by EU prime ministers and presidents at the EU summit in Brussels ensure that European households and businesses should benefit from measures to mitigate the sharp rise in energy prices in the short term; in the long run, Slovakia wants to help the EU with its transit possibilities, for example, in greater use of gas storage facilities in Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) said on Friday after the end of a two-day EU summit. During the talks, the Slovak premier pointed out that the European Commission had issued a manual on how each member state could proceed in terms of the single market and face this crisis. However, he emphasised that the EU should learn from the current energy situation and define minimum quantities of gas in storage. Arriving at the summit, Heger noted that Ukraine has large gas storage facilities - up to 30 billion cubic metres, which is higher capacity than it is currently using. According to him, Slovakia is ready to use its transit possibilities and be an important player in the EU in solving the energy crisis. BRATISLAVA - Four individuals who worked at the Pezinok labour centre are suspected of being involved in the illicit provision of pandemic emergency aid to letterbox companies, Labour, Social Affairs and Family Minister Milan Krajniak (We Are Family) reported on Friday. The individuals in question were regular clerks and not managers. They have already been fired, added the minister. According to Krajniak, the four individuals engaged in counterfeiting documents and signatures. BRATISLAVA - The Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry will submit an amendment to the Universities Act for comments later on Friday, education minister Branislav Groehling (SaS) announced at a press conference on the same day. The bill is designed to introduce education of improved quality plus financing tied to quality. BRATISLAVA - A prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor's Office (USP) on Friday issued an order to release former Finance Ministry state secretary Radko K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] from custody, TASR learnt from Prosecutor-General's Office spokesperson Dalibor Skladan on the same day. Radko K. has been detained, charged and subsequently prosecuted in custody since mid-August, when he was detained as part of the Toll Collector III case. BRATISLAVA - The State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL) on Thursday (October 21) registered a fifth case in which a death has been linked to vaccination against COVID-19. The case concerns a 71-year-old man with a chronic disease who received the Comirnaty vaccine from the Pfizer/BioNTech consortium. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia's coronavirus update for Thursday, October 21, 2021, according to the National Health Information Centre's (NCZI) special website covid-19.nczisk.sk and the Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation Ministry's website korona.gov.sk: NEW POSITIVE PCR TESTS: 3,470 Positive PCR tests in total: 449,775 NEW POSITIVE ANTIGEN TESTS: 677 Positive antigen tests in total: 403,923 NEW DEATHS: 3 Deaths in total: 12,886 am