Struga

North Macedonia's Prosecutor's Office is working on at least six active cases that are in different stages of investigation and refer to suspicions of abuse of position and fraud in connection with the Mayor of Struga, Ramiz Merko.

"While serving as Struga's mayor, Ramiz Merko misappropriated funds and interfered with judicial and other public processes, damaging the public's faith in North Macedonia's democratic institutions and officials," the US State Department explained shortly in a press release on Tuesday.

Ahead of a planned UNESCO inspection due in November, tasked at assessing progress in protecting the natural and cultural heritage of the Ohrid region, North Macedonia has drafted a plan to protect the area and prevent it from being put on the list of "World Heritage Sites in Danger".

The coalition will be joined by two MPs of the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, and three MPs aligned with a faction of the BESA party led by Afrim Gashi, BIRN reported.

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, is already in the government.

Dilaver Bojku aka Leku, a controversial local businessman, previously known as "the Balkan prostitution boss," has been killed in the Macedonian town of Struga.

Bojku was was shot to the head at around 17:00 hours CET on Monday on a Lake Ohrid beach that he held a concession for, in front of beachgoers.

The 54th International Poetry Evenings event in Struga, Macedonia, has hosted three poets from Turkey, along with 44 poets from 29 different countries.

Poetry against 'sound of evil'

Alevi-Kurdish author and columnist Bejan Matur, Metin Celal and ?smail K?l?çarslan attended the events from Turkey. 

The new party, called Movement for Reforms - Democratic Party of Albanians, was registered on Sunday, soon after a Macedonian court decided not to give the leadership of the DPA to Sela, who had claimed that he was the rightful president of the opposition party.

Albanian-language media in Macedonia have reported an exchange of punches between two rival groups at Tuesday's congress of the DUI in the town of Struga, which apparently left one man in hospital with head injuries.

The party itself has stayed silent. Its spokesperson, Bujar Osmani, was not available for comment on Wednesday. The police said no incident was reported.

The Macedonian students organization, the Students Plenum, has announced new actions against government plans to introduce "external testing" for graduates after it became apparent that the government would not abandon the plan.