Gordana Jankuloska

The Criminal Court in Skopje has until Thursday to answer complaints filed by Macedonia's Special Prosecution over the Court's decision last Friday to leave ministers suspected of election fraud at liberty.

The eight suspects, including two former ministers, were questioned about fraud allegations over the weekend but left the court as free people.

Macedonia's special prosecution office has pinpointed a former interior minister and transport minister as well as the secretary general of the government as the main suspects for organizing electoral fraud during the polls in 2013.

All 29 men accused of being part of or helping the armed group that clashed with police in ethnically-mixed Kumanovo in May this year told the Skopje court on Monday that they were not terrorists.

The ethnic Albanian suspects denied the charges and said the bloody two-day shootout was a result of them defending themselves from the police.

In the operation launched on Thursday morning in villages close to the Kosovo border, police arrested at least five people suspected of providing logistical help to the armed ethnic Albanian group that fought a bloody battle with security forces in Kumanovo in northern Macedonia in May.

Floods in the region of Macedonia's Tetovo have claimed the lives of several people, including two children.

A number of villages have been rendered totally inaccessible due to landslides.

Speaking on a stage in front of the government headquarters in Skopje, opposition Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev said he expected the crisis over the illegal surveillance scandal in Macedonia to end soon with the aid of international mediation.

Andonovski was appointed the new head of Macedonia's intelligence agency, the UBK, on Tuesday at a government session.

He was the former head of the Skopje branch of the secret police. His resume says he has worked in the police since 1987.

Steinmeier told a joint press conference with his Albanian counterpart, Ditmir Bushati, in Berlin that Albania's call for an international probe was justified.

"Last week's incident scared Europe. We hope the situation will not escalate and the authorities in Macedonia will make efforts towards a full and transparent investigation," he said. 

A rally in support of embattled Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski started in Skopje on Monday evening - a day after a protest march organized by the opoposition nearby demanded his resignation.  

Opposition Social Democrats, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev told a press conference on Friday that after the planned mass rally, a non-stop sit-in protest will maintain the pressure on Gruevski and his government.