the Former Yugoslav

Greek bear conservation group Arcturos has launched a public appeal to gather funds to help treat a brown bear cub that was injured in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) last month. Ushko, the 5-month old male cub, in question is being treated at Arcturos’s Forina sanctuary in Northern Greece. The cub has a broken pelvis as it was possibly hit by a car.

Standard and Poor?s warned on Wednesday it might downgrade the credit ratings of Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Serbia if the troubles of Greece spill over into their banking systems.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has, according to diplomatic sources, assured Greek officials that he did not consciously refer to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as ?Macedonia? in comments made before a meeting European Union foreign and defense ministers earlier this week.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and the European Union?s top foreign policy official, Federica Mogherini, on Thursday discussed rising tensions in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which have led to FYROM resurrecting demands for its accession to the EU and NATO despite an ongoing dispute with Greece over the Balkan state?s official name.

Police in Kilkis, northern Greece, said on Saturday that they had smashed a criminal racket alleged to have smuggled thousands of packets of contraband cigarettes into Greece.

Police said they arrested four Greek nationals, aged 24, 36, 37 and 48, on a rural road near the country?s border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) late on Thursday.

An 18-year-old man arrested trying to cross into Greece illegally from Albania was on his way to Syria to join Islamic State fighters, sources told Kathimerini Thursday.

The teenager was arrested on Wednesday and handed over to Albanian authorities Thursday. They told their Greek counterparts that during questioning he revealed he was attempting join jihadists in Syria.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias told his FYROM counterpart Nikola Poposki that Greece stands by its position on the long-standing name dispute with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The two men met in Riga, Latvia, on Saturday on the sidelines of a two-day EU Foreign Ministers meeting that focuses on the war in eastern Ukraine.

United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz is due to submit soon a new name proposal aimed at settling the dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which will see the neighboring country called Republic of Upper Macedonia, according to reports in Skopje.

A court on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Monday sentenced 18 people, including former intelligence employees, to jail for up to 15 years for spying for foreign countries.

Judge Gojko Ristov said evidence presented during the trial, the first of its kind in FYROM, proved the suspects guilt. The countries they allegedly spied for were not named.

It is up to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to make the “next steps” needed to solve its name dispute with Greece, said Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos after meeting his counterpart from the neighboring country, Nikola Poposki, in New York late on Friday.