Macedonia

Vraniskovski, a controversial priest serving a jail term for embezzlement, may have hopes of an imminent pardon, a well informed source from the Macedonian Justice Ministry told BIRN.

Close cultural ties between Turkey and Macedonia are valuable for business and the two countries should elevate their economic relations to the level their historic partnership deserves, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said while visiting Macedonia.

Two armed robbers made off with an unspecified amount of cash after holding up a post office in the northern Peloponnesian town of Aegio on Tuesday, the Athens-Macedonia News Agency reported.

The two men allegedly had their faces covered when they strode in the post office and threatened staff at gunpoint to turn over the contents of their tills.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was set to leave for the Macedonian capital of Skopje on Dec. 22, for a visit aimed at boosting bilateral relations with the Balkan country, as well as reiterating support for ethnic Turkish communities there.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alefeev of Volokolamsk, seen as one of the most influential figures in the Russian Orthodox Church and head of its external relations department, urged Macedonian leaders to release Vraniskovski in order to help the country's church settle its status in the Orthodox world, a well-informed source from the Macedonian Church told BIRN.

...

BELGRADE - The prime ministers of Macedonia and Slovenia and vice prime minister of Poland said at the third meeting of China and 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in Belgrade that cooperation between the countries is important for development of regional potentials.

Macedonia, Croatia tackle corruption

Officials' involvement in organised crime raises the issue of cross-border security.

Macedonian and Croatian police continue to co-operate to bring to justice current and former high-level officials suspected of corruption including cross-border fraud, experts said.

...

BEOGRAD - The Third Meeting of China and CEECs is expected to create possibilities for further successful cooperation among all the countries from this region, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said in an exclusive opinion piece for Tanjug ahead of the Third Meeting of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European countries in Belgrade, which Tanjug publishes in full.

The administration building of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki had been occupied by a group of unknown individuals, the Athens-Macedonia News Agency reported on Tuesday, saying that the institution's vice rector, Theodore Laopoulos, could not confirm whether they were students or not.

Macedonian NGO Civil - Centre for Freedom, which is launching the report called ‘Reality Check' on Monday in the ethnically-mixed north-western town of Tetovo, said that the recent drive to build scores of new monuments could be a "ticking bomb for inter-ethnic violence" in the future.

...