ZORAN ZAEV

North Macedonia’s fugitive former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has been handed a 9-year prison sentence for illegally ordering the 2011 demolition a multimillion-dollar complex owned by a former political ally turned opponent.

A court in North Macedonia has convicted the country’s fugitive former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, of using his conservative party’s funds to enrich himself and sentenced him in absentia to seven years in prison.

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has formally resigned, a move he had announced after his governing Social Democrat party’s heavy defeat in October’s local elections.

The leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia have met in Tirana to discuss and agree on furthering their Open Balkan initiative to promote political and economic ties.

The leader of North Macedonia’s conservative opposition is calling for an early parliamentary election after scoring a sweeping victory in municipal polls that prompted the center-left prime minister to announce his resignation.

North Macedonia’s prime minister has announced his resignation following the heavy defeat of his governing Social Democratic Union in local elections.

European Union leaders will gather Wednesday for a summit on how to keep engaging with their Western Balkans neighbors, but the bloc’s once-successful enlargement policy faces an impasse.

Twenty years ago, North Macedonia had narrowly averted a civil war and NATO was collecting rebel weapons in the poor Balkan country.

Albania's prime minister has complained about the delay in the launch of his country's membership negotiations with the European Union.

North Macedonia’s health minister has resigned nearly two days after a fire tore through a COVID-19 field hospital killing 12 patients and two visiting relatives.

North Macedonia’s government has declared three days of mourning after a deadly overnight fire in a COVID-19 field hospital left 14 people dead and 12 injured.

(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will begin vaccinating its population against COVID-19 next week after its first shipment of Pfizer vaccine was delivered on Monday. Australia is contracted to receive 20 million Pfizer doses and to receive or manufacture at home 53.8 million AstraZeneca doses. The average of new U.S. virus cases has dipped below 100,000 a day for the first time in months. Japan has formally approved its first COVID-19 vaccine. AdAs of Friday, Hawaii has had 26,743 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 425 deaths since the pandemic began in March.

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, right, talks for the media on a news conference with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, left, during a handover of COVID-19 vaccines, at the border crossing Tabanovce, between North Macedonia and Serbia, on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. Serbia which has launched a successful vaccination campaign has donated some 8,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 shots to North Macedonia which is yet to deliver its first shots. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)BELGRADE – Serbia on Sunday donated a first batch of 8,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to North Macedonia, which is yet to deliver its first jabs. Vucic’s opponents in Serbia have called his vaccine donation to North Macedonia another of his populist political moves meant to portray him as the main regional leader. They say many in Serbia are still waiting in line to get inoculated with their first choice Pfizer shots.

Young people wearing face masks carry banners during a protest march through downtown Skopje, North Macedonia, on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. Several hundred mostly young people have gathered in front of the North Macedonia's Interior ministry on Wednesday to protest sexual harassment of women on social media and policy of impunity for that kind of violence. ", "Cops asleep - Rapists awake", "State not acting is state raping", "Public Room is a criminal act". Several women at Wednesday's protest said their photographs were stolen from hacked social media accounts. A woman who spoke at the protest and identified herself only as Ana urged authorities to introduce legislation that would reduce online sexual harassment and strengthen police powers.

SKOPJE – A criminal court in North Macedonia has sentenced former conservative prime minister Nikola Gruevski to 1 1/2 years in prison, and handed suspended sentences to six other party members and supporters for orchestrating violence in 2013. Gruevski, who was granted political asylum in Hungary after fleeing there in 2018 to avoid a separate two-year prison sentence for corruption, was sentenced Tuesday in absentia. North Macedonia authorities are still seeking his extradition. The six others who received suspended sentences include Gruevski's former transport minister. Four other cases are pending against Gruevski, who served as prime minister from 2006-2016, on charges of corruption, election irregularities and abuse of office.

The leader of the ruling SDSM party Zoran Zaev wearing a face mask celebrates his victory at the North Macedonia general election, in Skopje, early Tuesday, July 16, 2020. A suspected hacking attack caused the site of North Macedonia's electoral commission to crash for hours after polls closed in the country's national elections Wednesday, delaying preliminary results that showed the Social Democrats narrowly leading the center-right opposition. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)SKOPJE North Macedonia's pro-Western Social Democrats said they were ready Thursday to start complicated power-sharing negotiations after winning a narrow election victory in a poll held up for months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats declared victory after receiving 36% of the vote with 94% of ballots counted, according to official results. Coalition talks will involve parties representing the countrys ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up nearly a quarter of the countrys 2.1 million population.

The leader of the ruling SDSM party Zoran Zaev speaks after his victory at the North Macedonia general election, in Skopje, early Tuesday, July 16, 2020. Shortly afterwards, Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev declared victory. Zaevs governing Social Democrats called the early parliamentary election when he resigned as prime minister in January after the European Union failed to give North Macedonia a start date for EU membership talks. The party has softened its earlier opposition to a landmark 2018 deal with Greece that saw the country change its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, clearing objections for it to join NATO earlier this year. North Macedonia has had a caretaker government since his resignation as prime minister in January.

Members of a special election team with a ballot box and voting material make their way visiting voters who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in self-isolation, in Skopje, North Macedonia, Monday, July 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)SKOPJE Election officials in North Macedonia carried ballot boxes to the homes of voters suffering from COVID-19 or in quarantine Monday, at the start of three days of voting in a general election that was delayed for months by the pandemic. North Macedonia is holding its first parliamentary election under its new country name, with voters heading to the polls during an alarming spike of coronavirus cases in this small Balkan nation. North Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a per-capita GDP of about $6,100. Hungary granted him political asylum and North Macedonia is seeking his extradition.