Macedonian Police

The number of Macedonian citizens holidaying in Albania for the summer has grown to the point where Albania has asked Macedonian police to help patrol the resorts.

Following an agreement between the Interior Ministries of Albania and Macedonia, this summer, for the first time, police from neighbouring Macedonia will help Albanian police tackle not only road policing but also crime.

Macedonian police have apprehended 12 suspects in relation to Thursday's rampage in parliament when more than 100 people including MP's were injured. The Interior Ministry on Wednesday said a total of 20 suspects faced criminal charges so far.

Macedonian police and prosecutors should swiftly bring to justice those responsible for injuring at least two journalists and assaulting at least four others.

This happened in Thursday night's storming of the parliament building, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday.

Skopje was peaceful on Friday morning, a day after the police intervened when VMRO-DPMNE supporters stormed the parliament building, N1 is reporting.

After the clashes in the streets and in parliament on Thursday evening, the police are almost nowhere to be seen in the streets this morning, while only four tents remain in front of parliament.

Macedonian police late on Thursday cleared the building of the country's Assembly after incidents and violence that happened there earlier in the evening.

Officers were posted in front of all entrances, while metal barriers were set up around the Assembly, the agency MIA reported.

The deputy head of the Macedonian Police's urban crime fighting unit, "Alfa", Saso Milosevski, has been sacked after the authorities discovered his high-school diploma was fake.

"It is not true that my diploma is false. Why do you care about my diploma?" Milosevski briefly told BIRN.

By comparing log files on wiretapped telephone numbers contained in three separate digital systems, the Special Prosecution, SJO hopes to solve the mystery of who carried out the mass illegal surveillance in Macedonia, BIRN has learned from informed sources.

Relatives of the ethnic Albanian men held in Macedonian prisons in connection with the bloody shootout in Kumanovo a year ago are asking diplomats and foreign organisation to support their claim that the prisoners have been tortured.

Several dozen migrants managed to illegally cross from Greece into Macedonia on April 24 -- a border that has been shut since February, an AFP photographer reported.
 

Macedonian police prevented rival rallies in Skopje from coming to blows on Thursday night amid fears that political tensions in the country could spiral out of control.

The anti-government rally was organized by the civil movement "Protestiram" ["I Protest"] and supported by the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM.