According to a survey carried out by the MVK Agency and published on Monday, the strongest coalition party Smer-SD would have gained 42 percent of the votes if a general election had taken place in January.

A team of Slovak paramedics arrived in Haiti on Sunday to provide help to the earthquake-stricken country. The 16 paramedics will mainly carry out disinfection in order to prevent the outbreak of diseases as well as logistic support for staff from St. Elizabeth's University for Healthcare and Social Work.

The minimum wage in Slovakia rose by 4.1 percent to €307.70 per month as of January 1, in line with a Government decision from October.

The Slovak Labour Ministry originally planned to increase the minimum wage of €295.5 per month by 8.1 percent as proposed by the unions. The Tripartite partners have met to negotiate the issue several times since August, but were unable to reach agreement, and the Government decided to set the increase at 4.1 percent.

It can be expected that there will be traffic jams as of January 1 at Slovak border crossings, as lorries will be registering for the new Slovak electronic road toll system. Border crossings with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria will certainly be most affected.

National Highway Company CEO Igor Choma said that special contact places have been established as well in order to make the registration process faster.

Slovak universities and colleges aren't improving. According to the Academic Ranking and Rating Agency (ARRA), Slovak universities and colleges aren't able to compete with foreign academic institutions and aren't even catching up. Even if some of the results improve, after one year they drop back to the original level.

Largest Slovak transport companies temporarily shut down their regular international bus links until further notice, due to the increased number of respiratory diseases in Ukraine.

Slovakia's State Material Reserves Administration is likely to sign a contract on the purchase of vaccines against the A/H1N1 flu with one pharmaceutical company by the end of November. It was originally planned that Slovakia would purchase vaccines by the end of October.