Skopje

BELGRADE - Balkan Design Network (BDN), which was established to provide strategic support in development and promotion of Balkan design and raise awareness about the significance of design for social and economic development, has started operation.

BDN was founded by the Mikser organisation from Belgrade, the Croatian Designer Society from Zagreb and Public Room from Skopje.

The Macedonian Transport Ministry said it will continue subsidising low-cost flights to and from the country despite Kosovo filing a complaint to the European Commission over what it sees as anti-competitive practices.

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy Parliament Speaker Vladimir Marinkovic participated on Tuesday in Skopje in a regional conference on oversight of IPA funds, organized by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Marinkovic pointed out that Serbia has used 98 percent of funds under the IPA 1 program, his office stated in a release.

Turkish Airlines' Senior Vice President for Marketing and Sales, Ziya Taşkent, has said the company is willing to consider a joint venture in Macedonia aimed at setting up a new national carrier.

MAT, Macedonian Airlines, the last government-backed national carrier, collapsed in 2009. Mat Airways, Macedonia's last privately-backed national airline, folded in 2011.

Police in Macedonia are questioning four people in relation to attempts to rig the voting for Eurovision.

They include a music producer, a song writer and one of the owners of the company that organized the televoting at the Skopje song festival on Thursday.

United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz admitted on Wednesday that “no progress” was made in the latest round of talks between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) aimed at resolving their name dispute.

Four fire engines arrived to tackle the blaze as smoke rose from the front of the government building on Monday morning at around 9am. Firefighters were forced to climb onto the building's façade and smash some parts of it to extinguish the flames.

An electrical fire which spread to building material was the most probable cause for the fire, initial reports have suggested.

Macedonian police told BIRN on Friday that they were still investigating a press release published in the media - and whether it is linked with the October 28 attack on the government building in Skopje, when two projectiles blasted holes in the roof and walls.

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An Athens appeals court on Friday accepted a request by the lawyers representing businessman Makis Psomiadis, a former nightclub owner and newspaper publisher, for a postponement to the latter's trial on charges of embezzling from the funds of Athens soccer team AEK in the period between 2001 and 2003. The new trial date has been set for April 29, 2015.

Macedonia is not in danger of losing over €600 million euro, envisaged as part of the EU's Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, IPA funds, the European Union delegation to Skopje has assured BIRN.

"There is no direct link between Macedonian government policy on South Stream and the European Union IPA funds," EU delegation to Macedonia spokesman Konstantin Jovanovski said.