Ali Ahmeti

The opposition Social Democrats presented covertly-recorded tapes on Monday that they said proved that PM Nikola Gruevski personally agreed an amnesty in the four war-crimes cases related to alleged atrocities committed by ethnic Albanians.

Top politicians, opposition leaders, NGO activists, journalists, businessmen, top academics, religious leaders and members of the judiciary have been subjected to widespread surveillance ordered by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and secret police chief Saso Mijalkov, the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, claimed on Monday.

Albanian-language media in Macedonia have reported an exchange of punches between two rival groups at Tuesday's congress of the DUI in the town of Struga, which apparently left one man in hospital with head injuries.

The party itself has stayed silent. Its spokesperson, Bujar Osmani, was not available for comment on Wednesday. The police said no incident was reported.

Ali Ahmeti, the head of the junior party in Macedonia's ruling coalition, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, demanded on Tuesday a transparent retrial and a public presentation of the evidence that led to the conviction of six ethnic Albanians for terrorism - a verdict that sparked unrest on the streets of the capital last week.

Political parties in Macedonia have reached an agreement on the country's new cabinet more than two weeks after the country held 2-in-1 elections.

The party says it was only a speculation that the main ruling VMRO DPMNE has set this as a condition for resuming talks on the formation of a new government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and that they have been pressed to appear at Ivanov’s inaugural session.

Zoran Zaev, head of the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, said the party stood by its decision not to take up the 34 seats it won in the 123-seat parliament in last Sunday’s elections.

Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos - whose country holds the EU presidency - said he felt more optimistic on the “name” dispute after meeting Macedonian leaders on Thursday.

The Greek visit, taking place within the capacity of Greece’s EU presidency, is not expected to result in a breakthrough in the "name" dispute that has been poisoning relations for decades and blocking Macedonia’s EU and NATO integration.