ZORAN ZAEV

North Macedonia’s fugitive former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has been handed a 9-year prison sentence for illegally ordering the 2011 demolition a multimillion-dollar complex owned by a former political ally turned opponent.

A court in North Macedonia has convicted the country’s fugitive former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, of using his conservative party’s funds to enrich himself and sentenced him in absentia to seven years in prison.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — Police in North Macedonia have raided a company legally growing marijuana for medicinal purposes and seized about 1.5 tons of cannabis due to “irregularities” in the firm's operation, the country's interior minister said Wednesday. Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski said in a written statement that the seized quantity had not been declared and was confiscated “due to irregularities in the operation of the legal entity." The raid took place Tuesday in the southern town of Strumica, where several companies licensed to grow medical marijuana in North Macedonia are based. North Macedonia was among the first Balkan countries to allow patients to legally buy and use marijuana products for medical — but not recreational — purposes. Since 2016, authorities have issued more than 60 licenses for cultivation of medical cannabis.

Albania Western Balkans North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev speaks during a press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic after the "Open Balkan" initiative at the Palace of Brigades, Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda) (Franc Zhurda)SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev formally resigned Wednesday, in a move he had announced after his governing Social Democrat party's heavy defeat in October's local elections. North Macedonia’s parliament is expected to formally accept Zaev's resignation on Thursday. Zaev served as party leader since 2013 and as prime minister since 2016. He secured North Macedonia’s membership in NATO after ending a decades-long dispute with Greece over the country’s name.

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has formally resigned, a move he had announced after his governing Social Democrat party’s heavy defeat in October’s local elections.

Leaders of the three countries convene regularly to promote their countries' political and economic ties along the path toward integration with the European Union. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda) (Franc Zhurda)TIRANA, Albania — (AP) — The leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia met Tuesday to discuss and agree on furthering their Open Balkan initiative to promote political and economic ties. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hosted the two-day meeting in the capital, Tirana, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. “We are here to build bridges, to build the future.”The three Western Balkan countries are at different stages on the path to EU membership. Three other Western Balkan countries — Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro — haven't joined the Open Balkan initiative.

The leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia have met in Tirana to discuss and agree on furthering their Open Balkan initiative to promote political and economic ties.

Officials believe the tourist bus hit the highway rails and caught fire

The cause of the blaze remained unclear, but no other vehicles were involved in the incident.

A bus crash in western Bulgaria early Tuesday has killed at least 45 people, authorities said. The bus crashed around 2 a.m. and there were children among the victims, officials said.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — The leader of North Macedonia's center-right opposition VMRO-DPMNE party says he has secured a majority in Parliament to submit a no confidence vote against the leftist cabinet, after a small ethnic Albanian party announced it has left the ruling coalition. Hristijan Mickoski set Monday as the deadline for Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to submit his resignation to Parliament. He said he will try to form a new cabinet or will request an early parliamentary election. If this goal is not achieved ... then the only option that remains are early parliamentary elections,”, Mickoski told reporters at a press conference in North Macedonia’s capital of Skopje. Social Democrat leader Zaev announced his resignation as prime minister last weekend after his party lost municipal races in Skopje and other cities.

North Macedonia Local Elections Hristijan Mickoski, center, leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, is greeted by supporters during celebration of the victory on the local elections, at the party headquarters in Skopje, North Macedonia, late Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced his resignation as prime minister and leader of Social-democratic Union after oppositional center-right coalition won a landslide victory on local elections. Hristijan Mickoski, who heads the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, told supporters early Monday that the governing Social Democrats had “lost legitimacy” and should call a snap election. Zaev, who will also step down as party leader, favors talks to form a new government within the existing parliamentary mandate. The pro-Western Social Democrats won a narrow parliamentary election victory last year, forming a government with a multi-party coalition.

The leader of North Macedonia’s conservative opposition is calling for an early parliamentary election after scoring a sweeping victory in municipal polls that prompted the center-left prime minister to announce his resignation.

North Macedonia Elections A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Skopje, North Macedonia, on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) (Boris Grdanoski)SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced his resignation late Sunday following the heavy defeat of his governing Social Democratic Union in North Macedonia's local elections. “The responsibility for this outcome is mine and I’m resigning as prime minister and as leader of the Social Democratic Union,” Zaev said at a news conference at party headquarters. SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — North Macedonia held runoff local elections Sunday that are seen as test for the leftist national government after the center-right opposition won way more municipalities than the ruling Social Democratic Union in the first round of voting two weeks ago. Ethnic Albanian parties, including the Democratic Union for Integration, a junior coalition partner in the leftist government, are competing for more than a dozen mayoral posts.

North Macedonia’s prime minister has announced his resignation following the heavy defeat of his governing Social Democratic Union in local elections.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — German renewable energy company WPD will build a 500 million-euro ($580 million) wind farm in the northeastern part of North Macedonia, the small Balkan country's said Tuesday. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said the planned 415 megawatt project is the largest German investment in the country and the biggest in the field of green energy since North Macedonia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Zaev said 69 new wind turbines will be installed between the towns of Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka. The wind farm will supply electricity to 290,000 households once completed. North Macedonia's government plans to secure about 1,500 megawatts from solar power plants and about 700 megawatts in wind power.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — A fire in a COVID-19 hospital in North Macedonia that killed 14 people last month was caused by the short-circuit of a cable connected to a defibrillator and spread fast due to the presence of stored oxygen for the patients, authorities said. The prosecutor's office said medical staff attempted to extinguish the initial flames, but the blaze spread quickly to the roof panels of the field hospital and from there to the lower areas of the walls and to hospital equipment. Health Minister Venko Filipce offered his resignation two days after the fire, as did his deputy minister and two senior hospital administrators. Nineteen field hospitals, funded by a World Bank loan, were set up across North Macedonia over the past year to tackle surging coronavirus hospitalizations and a shortage of hospital beds. Health authorities say all 19 were constructed according to the specifications and standards laid out by the World Bank as a condition for the loan.

European Union leaders will gather Wednesday for a summit on how to keep engaging with their Western Balkans neighbors, but the bloc’s once-successful enlargement policy faces an impasse.

Twenty years ago, North Macedonia had narrowly averted a civil war and NATO was collecting rebel weapons in the poor Balkan country.

Albania's prime minister has complained about the delay in the launch of his country's membership negotiations with the European Union.

North Macedonia’s health minister has resigned nearly two days after a fire tore through a COVID-19 field hospital killing 12 patients and two visiting relatives.

North Macedonia’s government has declared three days of mourning after a deadly overnight fire in a COVID-19 field hospital left 14 people dead and 12 injured.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia — (AP) — A court in North Macedonia on Monday sentenced the country’s former parliamentary speaker and three other senior officials over a violent attack against parliament in 2017. The attack took place during post-election political unrest in April 2017 when about 100 nationalist demonstrators, some wearing masks, stormed the parliament building in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje. The protesters sought to prevent the election of a new parliamentary speaker. Dozens of journalists and lawmakers were injured in the parliament attack, including then-opposition leader Zoran Zaev, head of the Social Democrats, and the current prime minister. The conservative opposition has described the legal action against the officials sentenced Monday as unfair and politically motivated.

(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will begin vaccinating its population against COVID-19 next week after its first shipment of Pfizer vaccine was delivered on Monday. Australia is contracted to receive 20 million Pfizer doses and to receive or manufacture at home 53.8 million AstraZeneca doses. The average of new U.S. virus cases has dipped below 100,000 a day for the first time in months. Japan has formally approved its first COVID-19 vaccine. AdAs of Friday, Hawaii has had 26,743 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 425 deaths since the pandemic began in March.

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, right, talks for the media on a news conference with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, left, during a handover of COVID-19 vaccines, at the border crossing Tabanovce, between North Macedonia and Serbia, on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. Serbia which has launched a successful vaccination campaign has donated some 8,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 shots to North Macedonia which is yet to deliver its first shots. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)BELGRADE – Serbia on Sunday donated a first batch of 8,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to North Macedonia, which is yet to deliver its first jabs. Vucic’s opponents in Serbia have called his vaccine donation to North Macedonia another of his populist political moves meant to portray him as the main regional leader. They say many in Serbia are still waiting in line to get inoculated with their first choice Pfizer shots.

In this picture taken on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, people and health workers are pictured in front of the entrance of the University Clinic complex in Skopje, North Macedonia. That news has deeply frustrated North Macedonia which has yet to secure a single dose of COVID vaccine for its 2.1 million population. North Macedonia is hoping to receive 840,000 vaccine doses this month under a scheme led by the World Health Organization to help poorer countries immunize their populations. But manufacturing delays in recent weeks have held up plans here and for some other EU neighbors including Ukraine and Moldova. Earlier this week, North Macedonian authorities signed an agreement to procure 200,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, with which they hope to launch their vaccination program later this month.

Young people wearing face masks carry banners during a protest march through downtown Skopje, North Macedonia, on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. Several hundred mostly young people have gathered in front of the North Macedonia's Interior ministry on Wednesday to protest sexual harassment of women on social media and policy of impunity for that kind of violence. ", "Cops asleep - Rapists awake", "State not acting is state raping", "Public Room is a criminal act". Several women at Wednesday's protest said their photographs were stolen from hacked social media accounts. A woman who spoke at the protest and identified herself only as Ana urged authorities to introduce legislation that would reduce online sexual harassment and strengthen police powers.

SKOPJE – A criminal court in North Macedonia has sentenced former conservative prime minister Nikola Gruevski to 1 1/2 years in prison, and handed suspended sentences to six other party members and supporters for orchestrating violence in 2013. Gruevski, who was granted political asylum in Hungary after fleeing there in 2018 to avoid a separate two-year prison sentence for corruption, was sentenced Tuesday in absentia. North Macedonia authorities are still seeking his extradition. The six others who received suspended sentences include Gruevski's former transport minister. Four other cases are pending against Gruevski, who served as prime minister from 2006-2016, on charges of corruption, election irregularities and abuse of office.

The leader of the ruling SDSM party Zoran Zaev wearing a face mask celebrates his victory at the North Macedonia general election, in Skopje, early Tuesday, July 16, 2020. A suspected hacking attack caused the site of North Macedonia's electoral commission to crash for hours after polls closed in the country's national elections Wednesday, delaying preliminary results that showed the Social Democrats narrowly leading the center-right opposition. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)SKOPJE North Macedonia's pro-Western Social Democrats said they were ready Thursday to start complicated power-sharing negotiations after winning a narrow election victory in a poll held up for months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats declared victory after receiving 36% of the vote with 94% of ballots counted, according to official results. Coalition talks will involve parties representing the countrys ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up nearly a quarter of the countrys 2.1 million population.

The leader of the ruling SDSM party Zoran Zaev speaks after his victory at the North Macedonia general election, in Skopje, early Tuesday, July 16, 2020. Shortly afterwards, Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev declared victory. Zaevs governing Social Democrats called the early parliamentary election when he resigned as prime minister in January after the European Union failed to give North Macedonia a start date for EU membership talks. The party has softened its earlier opposition to a landmark 2018 deal with Greece that saw the country change its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, clearing objections for it to join NATO earlier this year. North Macedonia has had a caretaker government since his resignation as prime minister in January.

Members of a special election team with a ballot box and voting material make their way visiting voters who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in self-isolation, in Skopje, North Macedonia, Monday, July 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)SKOPJE Election officials in North Macedonia carried ballot boxes to the homes of voters suffering from COVID-19 or in quarantine Monday, at the start of three days of voting in a general election that was delayed for months by the pandemic. North Macedonia is holding its first parliamentary election under its new country name, with voters heading to the polls during an alarming spike of coronavirus cases in this small Balkan nation. North Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a per-capita GDP of about $6,100. Hungary granted him political asylum and North Macedonia is seeking his extradition.