Macedonia

BIRN delves into the modest money and limited activity behind three 'cultural clubs' in North Macedonia and Bulgaria that have nonetheless poured fuel on the fire of a long-running bilateral dispute.

As the North Macedonian parliamentary commission starts work this week on drafting important but controversial change designed to satisfy neighbouring Bulgaria, opposition parties have cried foul, insisting that the experts nominated in it lack credibility, as they are close to the ruling parties.

"Geocultura," inspiring the connection between cultivation of the land and cultivation of the mind, is the broad theme of the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, running out of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (momus.gr) at different venues across the northern port city.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised residents in Megalopoli on Friday that future investments will help the town in the central Peloponnese deal with the impact of phasing out lignite. 

Frontex, the European Union's border agency, began deploying guards on Thursday at North Macedonia's southern border with Greece in a collaboration with Skopje to monitor and prevent illegal migration and cross-border crime. 

Frontex officials said that under an agreement signed last October, they will deploy more than 100 border guards. 

The European Union's border agency, Frontex, started deploying guards at North Macedonia's southern border with Greece on Thursday in a joint operation with Skopje to control and prevent illegal migration and cross-border crime.

Two brothers aged 43 and 49 years old, respectively, face criminal charges, including for endangering public safety, after allegedly stealing a railroad tie.

The metal tie was stolen from a Hellenic Railways (OSE) storage facility on the Veria-Edessa line in northern Greece and found in the trunk of the brothers' car, the Athens-Macedonian News Agency reported on Thursday.

The region of Central Macedonia will have its own exhibition stand at this month's Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum, which aims to promote its unique historical and cultural heritage and highlight its rich tourism product comprising mythical mountains, legendary archaeological sites, sandy beaches, crystal-clear seas and picturesque lakes and rivers.

The President of the Republic of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, stated that in the last two years, he has not had a single constructive conversation with his Bulgarian colleague, Rumen Radev.

Atanasov, who is 33, had spent two and a half years working for a foreign oil and gas company, a job that saw him spending more time in Africa than at home. When a friend died of malaria, he decided enough was enough.