Skopje

Defence attorney Naser Raufi told the Skopje criminal court in his closing arguments on Thursday that the seven accused had nothing to do with the murder of five ethnic Macedonians during Orthodox Easter in 2012.

Raufi who is the attorney for five of the defendants, all of whom are ethnic Albanians, said they should be released due to “lack of evidence”.

Construction works were launched on Thursday aiming to transform the city's Macedonia Square in line with the grand government revamp called Skopje 2014.

First on the agenda is construction of a large ground-level "jumping-jet" fountain, which will be 10 x 20 metres wide.

Prosecutor Gordana Geskovska told the Skopje court in her closing arguments on Friday that the murder of five ethnic Macedonians by a group of alleged Albanian extremists during Orthodox Easter in 2012 was an act of terror carried out in order to provoke ethnic strife.

After Sunday’s short torrential rain and hailstones the size of marbles, which took residents by surprise, the authorities on Tuesday restored matters to normal.

EU supports improvements to Balkan railroads

More bad weather after storm, quake hit Skopje

SKOPJE -- Macedonia will see more heavy rain on Monday, along with gale force winds and thunder and hail storms, forecasters have warned.

On Sunday, a strong storm hit the town of Skopje.

Heavy rainfalls have flooded areas of Macedonian capital Skopje, Sunday.

Apart from the rains, Macedonia saw significant amounts of hail and strong winds of 70m/s during the day, MINA news agency reports.

No one was hurt in the 30-minute dramatic storm that overwhelmed Skopje's water collection system and took residents by surprise, police reported late in the evening.

Unlike in neighbouring Serbia and Bosnia, where rivers recently overflowed causing massive floods, the storm in Skopje was short-lived and the River Vardar did not burst its banks.

BELGRADE - The Macedonian Opera and Ballet has decided to send the entire proceeds from the play Faust, staged as part the May Opera Evenings in Skopje on May 22, as aid for the people badly hit by the recent massive flooding in Serbia, the National Theatre in Belgrade has said in a release.

After two days of violent ethnic protests in the Skopje suburb of Gjorce Petrov, folllowing the murder of a teen by a thief, the situation is now tense but calm.

Police patrolling the municipality said they detained several dozen protestors during the riots on Monday and Tuesday and filed criminal charges against five.