Slovakia today - latest news from Slovakia

Slovnaft oil refinery on Thursday apologised to Bratislava residents for the huge blast heard kilometers away at 10 p.m. on Wednesday when its polyethylene-making line was depressurised for security purposes.

The Slovak emission quotas scandal can drag on and on, and without immediate legal steps being taken Slovakia could lose at least €216 million, said Rainer K. Wachter, the director of Vienna branch of the American law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP on Thursday.

The freshly dismissed construction and regional development minister Igor Stefanov will be advising Education Minister Jan Mikolaj in the Construction Ministry related agenda as Mikolaj was on Thursday appointed by President Ivan Gasparovic to replace Stefanov in the post.

The Slovak Parliament passed the Patriotism Act. The legislation set to come into effect as of April 2010. According to the act, the Slovak national anthem must be mandatorily played in all schools at the beginning of every school week.

Iveta Radicova has won the SDKU-DS party primaries and the top spot on the party's slate for the parliamentary elections in June. "I won't lie - there were predictions that I would fare slightly better than Ivan Miklos. I thank him for a fair contest and his promise of teamwork," said Radicova.

The opposition SDKU-DS party, which led the Slovak government of 2002-06, said on Wednesday that its chairman and former premier Mikulas Dzurinda will not be a candidate for the post of prime minister even if the party forms the new government after the June 12 election.

The Government led by Prime Minister Robert Fico has lost touch with reality in Slovakia, watching on passively as unemployment and corruption grow rapidly, and burdening Slovakia with heavy debts, representatives of the main opposition party SDKU-DS said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Slovak Police continues with the practice of sniffer dog trainings, however the procedure where an actual explosives sample is put into travellers' luggage has been banned, said Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak at a press conference in Bratislava on Thursday.

After a break of more than a month, the first-class roads in Slovakia could soon be tolled again. This is according to Prime Minister Robert Fico, who made the announcement following his meeting with road transporters, representatives of the National Highway Company (NDS), road toll system provider SkyToll and Transport Minister.

Both the Coalition and the Opposition on Thursday managed to team up in Parliament, passing the broadly-discussed bill on the origin of property disclosure with 112 votes into second reading and, at the same time, enabling legislation was passed (109 votes) entailing a constitutional amendment.