VMRO DPMNE party

Skopje Criminal Court on Friday found the businessmen Sead Kocan and one other guilty of falsifying documents in 2011 to win a 17-million-euros tender to extract coal from the Suvodol mine near the town of Bitola for the state power company, ELEM.

The tender was awarded to his consortium in 2012.

Talks between Macedonia's main ruling Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, and the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, led by Hristijan Mickovski, failed to clear the path on Thursday towards a referendum on the historic "name" deal with Greece.

After marathon discussions between the heads of all of Macedonia's parliamentary parties on Wednesday ended without agreement, talks were due to resume in Skopje on Thursday between the leaders of the four largest parties alone.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has set up a meeting with leaders of the opposition and other parliamentary parties for Wednesday afternoon, aimed at ending the opposition's informal blockade of the planned referendum on the name deal with Greece which is aimed at clearing the country's way towards NATO and EU membership.

Macedonia this week is starting the technical screening process to assess its readiness for EU accession talks, which, according to plan, could start in June next year.

On his arrival on Skopje on Tuesday, Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn will meet Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi and the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party leader Hristijan Mickovski.

Macedonia's parliament on Thursday ratified the agreement with Greece for a second time and with the same ratio of MPs.

Once again, 69 of the 120 MPs voted in favour of the agreement while one abstained. No MPs voted against as the entire opposition bloc, led by  the former ruling VMRO DPMNE party, boycotted the session.

The Skopje Criminal Court on Thursday handed heavy jail sentences to seven men for a premeditated murder attempt on Ziadin Zela, an MP and leader of the small opposition Alliance for Albanians.

The new law on abortion, whose draft version is nearly complete, will put an emphasis on women's right to choose, health minister Venko Filipce pledged.

The law will allow women to choose to have an abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy after consultation with their gynaecologist.

The recent two-year sentence handed down to Nikola Gruevski Macedonia's former conservative Prime Minister and ex-leader of the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party - for involvement in the illicit secret purchase of a luxury Mercedes - is not the end of his judicial troubles.

Gruevski currently faces criminal charges in four more cases, three of which have already gone to trial.

A three-hour televised duel between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and opposition leader Hristijan Mickovski, the first such event in 16 years, attracted intense attention from viewers in the country and drew heat on social networks.