Movement for Reforms

Skopje's Criminal Court on Thursday jailed 65-year-old Pance Angelov for four years for taking part in the mob assault on parliament in April that injured several MPs.

He was seen in video footage from parliament violently pulling the hair of then MP, now Defence Minister, Radmila Sekerinska.

The text of the new language law – seen as the last legal remaining provision stemming from a 2001 peace deal that ended an armed conflict between Albanian insurgents and FYROM security forces – is expected to be put before parliament for adoption soon.

The text of the new language law - seen as the last legal remaining provision stemming from a 2001 peace deal that ended an armed conflict between Albanian insurgents and Macedonian security forces - is expected to be put before parliament for adoption soon.

FYROM’s new reformist government faces it first big test after a small coalition partner, the DPA – Movement for Reforms, said it would quit the Social Democrat-led government if it fails to adopt a law extending the official use of Albanian by early September.

Macedonia's new reformist government faces it first big test after a small coalition partner, the DPA - Movement for Reforms, said it would quit the Social Democrat-led government if it fails to adopt a law extending the official use of Albanian by early September.

Legal experts suspect that the charges raised against nine alleged participants in the April 27 violence in parliament are too mild and may be part of a plan to prevent them from ever standing trial for much more serious offences.

The prosecution charged the nine suspects with "participation in a violent crowd that prevented police officials from performing [their] duty".

After Macedonia's parliament canceled Friday's session due to damage caused by rioters, heavily equipped riot police were deployed in front of the building in anticipation of more protests on Friday afternoon.

The ethnic Albanian parties involved in organizing a planned roundtable of Albanian leaders, which is designed to oversee fulfillment of the objectives of the parties' joint declaration, have traded blamed over its failure to take shape.

Despite the victory of the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, in the election re-run on Sunday in the village of Tearce in Macedonia, the number of seats that each bloc won in the December 11 elections remains the same. The ruling VMRO DPMNE party won 51 and the SDSM 49 in the 120-seat parliament.

The opposition won 245 votes in Tearce and the ruling party won just 150.

Thaci announced his irrevocable resignation on Thursday on Facebook, but did not specify what the reasons for his decision were and whether the bad election results played a role.

"Dear friends. I have just submitted an irrevocable resignation from the post as party president," Thaci wrote.