Slovakia's leftist prime minister said Tuesday he was ready to back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between man and woman, effectively closing the door to same-sex marriage.

The opposition Christian Democrats and other center-right parties drafted the amendment that will need support from Prime Minister Robert Fico Smer's social democrats for the two-thirds majority required to change the constitution.

The three last Uighurs who had languished in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay for over a decade despite facing no charges have been freed and sent to Slovakia, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

"This transfer and resettlement constitutes a significant milestone in our effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement, thanking Slovakia for taking the three men in.

Two Slovak soldiers were among three NATO personnel killed Friday in Kabul when a Taliban suicide attacker detonated an explosives-packed car next to a NATO military convoy, Slovakia's defense ministry confirmed.

"We can confirm that two members of the Slovak armed forces died today in an attack on a convoy in Afghanistan," a ministry statement issued in the capital Bratislava said.

Slovakia's leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico said Wednesday he will stand in next year's presidential elections, ending months of speculation and instantly becoming a front-runner.

"I have officially decided to run for president," Fico told journalists in Bratislava, adding that he fancied his chances: "I am in good political shape," he said.

Two Slovak paragliders arrested in Iran for allegedly spying returned home early Friday after 205 days in prison, officials said.

"We learned our lesson and we'll try to prepare better for our journeys and think twice when picking our destinations," one of the paragliders Pavol Seliga told journalists upon arriving in Bratislava overnight.

Eastern European foreign ministers warned Friday that British plans to restrict migrants' rights to unemployment benefits could damage the European Union.

The foreign ministers of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said free movement was a "cornerstone" of EU integration, dismissing British fears that migrants from the region could be a drain on resources.

Human rights activists and Jewish groups sounded the alarm Monday over the surprise election of a Slovak neo-Nazi as regional governor after he wooed voters with anti-Roma rhetoric.

Marian Kotleba's weekend victory comes as several European nationalist parties, including France's anti-immigrant National Front and Hungary's far-right Jobbik, plan to join forces ahead of next year's European Parliament elections.

Every store receipt in Slovakia will double as a lottery ticket as of September, the finance ministry said Monday in a bid to fight tax evasion.

Residents will be able to register the serial number of each receipt in a national lottery system from which 10 winners will be drawn twice a month.

Slovakia said Wednesday it was hopeful eight Slovak paragliders held for months in Iran for alleged spying would be released.

"We are in talks with the Iranian side and these positive signals give us reason for a cautious optimism," foreign ministry press officer Peter Susko told Agence France Presse.

An Afghan soldier detained for killing a NATO soldier escaped from his cell and walked off a military base with the help of a guard who also absconded, officials said Monday.

The pair even hitched a lift to the main gate of the base aboard a military truck, one local official told Agence France Presse.