Macedonia News

Several thousand supporters of Macedonia`s opposition VMRO-DPMNE party protested on Saturday against changing the name of the country and to demand an early election because of the poor state of the economy, which contracted last year.

The two European giants remain locked on 16 points at the top of Group G of UEFA qualifying after Italy saw off Liechtenstein 5-0 in Udine.

European Council President Donald Tusk said in Macedonia on Monday he hoped the country`s leaders would avoid fueling ethnic tensions and focus on advancing towards EU membership instead.

Several thousand people marched Tuesday along the streets of Macedonian capital Skopje protesting against the rule of conservative leader Nikola Gruevski`s VMRO-DPMNE party ahead of December snap elections.

A moderate 5.3-magnitude earthquake, preceded by two and followed by several tremors, struck the Macedonian capital Skopje today, causing panic but only minor damage, officials said.

Four Italians and two nationals of Kosovo died in a plane crash near Macedonia's capital Skopje, officials said.

Macedonia held a day of mourning Monday after at least 21 people were killed in flooding and violent winds as a freak storm battered the capital Skopje.

Greece sent in police and bulldozers on Tuesday to knock down tents and relocate hundreds of migrants who had been stranded for months in a squalid makeshift camp on the border with Macedonia.

Hundreds of Greek police on Tuesday began clearing the squalid Idomeni camp, a migrant flashpoint on the Macedonia border where thousands of people have been camped out for more than three months.

As dusk fell on Saturday evening, a Reuters witness saw a group of up to 70 people crossing into Macedonia from Greece, at a point where there is no razor wire fence between the two countries.

Macedonia has entered into a second week of protests with thousands marching peacefully in the capital after the country's president pardoned dozens of politicians who were facing criminal proceedings for alleged involvement in a wiretapping scandal.

Gruevski, who had been prime minister since 2006, resigned in January in order to pave the way for early elections.

Macedonia polls will be held on June 5 despite calls for delay.

Macedonia braced for fresh protests over the president's shock decision to halt probes into more than 50 public figures embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal.

Macedonia`s president on Tuesday blocked all judicial proceedings against top politicians embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal that sparked a major political crisis, a move the European Union said raised "serious concerns".

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused neighbouring Macedonia on Monday of "shaming" Europe by firing tear gas and rubber bullets at migrants desperately trying to break through a border fence.

 Some 1,500 migrants who managed to cross into Macedonia, despite the border being closed to them for a week, have been sent back to Greece by Macedonian troops, officials said Tuesday.

Some 700 refugees and migrants were being held in Macedonia on Tuesday after they managed to slip across the border from Greece, a frontier that has been shut for a week.

Slovenia and Serbia, along with Austria, Croatia and Macedonia, have dramatically restricted entry to migrants in recent weeks.

Macedonia on Wednesday allowed some 170 refugees to cross its border with Greece as 10,000 more were left waiting at the border under miserable conditions, Greek officials said.