Condition of Slovakia’s prime minister improves following an assassination attempt

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovak populist Prime Minister Robert Fico’s condition is improving following an assassination attempt last week that shocked the European Union nation deeply polarized over his policies. The hospital treating Fico in the central city of Banská Bystrica says Fico’s “clinically improving, communicating, inflammatory parameters are slowly decreasing.” It said Fico remains hospitalized in the clinic for the time being. Monday’s announcement came a day after the clinic announced that Fico, 59, was no longer in life threating condition after he was shot in the abdomen in the town of Handlova, nearly 140 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of the capital, Bratislava.