Macedonians took a day off work on Wednesday to plant six million trees in an action launched back in March to revive forests after fires ravaged an estimated 35,000 hectares of greenery.

`The main goal of the `Day of The Tree -- Plant your future` initiative is to protect the environment and increase ecological awareness among citizens,` the government said in a statement.

Macedonian police have arrested 15 people suspected of organizing a human trafficking network which has smuggled dozens of immigrants towards Europe, the interior minister said Wednesday.

Macedonia`s parliament voted a resolution Monday calling for a `strategy` to solve an ongoing row with neighouring Greece over its name, which has harmed its attempts to join the Europan Union.

Serbia has denied entry to a train from Bulgaria after discovering a carriage laden with radioactive material, the customs service said Monday.

`Serbian Customs found radioactivity 3,000 times over permitted levels inside one of the carriages of the train and 300 times on the (outer) surface of the carriage,` it said in a statement sent to AFP.

Serbia has denied entry to a train from Bulgaria after discovering a carriage laden with radioactive material, the customs service said Monday.

`Serbian Customs found radioactivity 3,000 times over permitted levels inside one of the carriages of the train and 300 times on the (outer) surface of the carriage,` it said in a statement sent to AFP.

Forty-two police officers in Macedonia will face prosecution after being accused of corruption and stealing about 140,000 euros of public funds, the country`s interior ministry said Sunday.

The 42 officers all worked on the customs route between Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Police in Macedonia broke a cigarette-smuggling ring and arrested 28 people involved in illegal trafficking of tobacco products, one of the most profitable businesses in the Balkans, officials said Wednesday.

A Macedonian court handed nine ethnic Albanians jail terms ranging from five to six and a half years for their roles in the violence that flared during legislative elections in June, a judge said Monday.

The nine were found guilty for `illegal possession of arms, criminal association and interruption of the electoral process,` the judge Lidija Nedelkova said, announcing the sentence.

Macedonia is not yet ready to start European Union membership talks, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Monday, less than three weeks before an evaluation of the Balkan state`s accession hopes.

`We will make our evaluation on November 5 but for the moment, I believe, it will be difficult to recommend opening accession negotiations,` with Macedonia, he told AFP.

Macedonian police have seized heroin worth 700,000 euros (956,259 dollars) near the Greek border, a statement said late Tuesday.

The drug was bundled into 69 packets and stuffed in a truck carrying construction material from Istanbul in Turkey, it said.

TIRANA, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Albania welcomes the recognition of Kosovo's independence by Macedonia and Montenegro, viewing the move as a stabilising factor, President Bamir Topi said Friday.

'The recognition of Kosovo's independence by Macedonia and Montenegro is good news which will contribute to peace and stability in the whole region,' Topi told reporters in the Albanian capital.

BELGRADE, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Serbia reacted angrily Wednesday to its former federal partner Montenegro's decision to recognise the independence of Kosovo, and expressed concern about stability in the region.

'Serious harm was done to citizens of both Serbia and Montenegro who have so much in common,' Serbia's President Boris Tadic said.

OHRID, Macedonia, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived on Tuesday in the southwestern Maceconian lake resort Ohrid where he was to attend a meeting of regional defence ministers.

The regular annual meeting on Wednesday will gather defence ministers from 16 states, including for the first time the United States, Turkey, Greece and Albania.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appointed two new special envoys on climate change, one of his top priorities, his press office said Thursday in a statement.

STRASBOURG , September 9, 2008 (AFP) - Inmates in Macedonia's prisons have detailed beatings by police officers and degrading conditions in the prisons themselves, in a Council of Europe report released Wednesday.

The report, by the council's anti-torture committee, detailed the allegations by inmates after a visit to three prisons there.

BRUSSELS, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - The European Union's enlargement commissioner on Thursday called on Macedonia to enact 'substantial' new reform efforts before talks could start on joining the EU.

SKOPJE, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - Turkish airport operator TAV has won a contract to modernise Macedonia's two main civilian airports and build another one, the Macedonian government said Tuesday.

SKOPJE, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - Turkish airport operator TAV has won a contract to modernise Macedonia's two main civilian airports and build another one, the Macedonian government said Tuesday.

LJUBLJANA, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Slovenia's largest oil distributor Petrol said Thursday it plans to take over at least one company as part of plans to expand into Macedonia and extend its network of gasoline (petrol) stations to all the former Yugoslav states.

SKOPJE, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Four people were killed Thursday when their single-engine light aircraft crashed into a vehicle while flying low above a village in Macedonia, police said.

The privately-owned Cessna 172 was overflying Leskoec, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Skopje, when the accident occurred.

SKOPJE, August 27, 2008 (AFP) - Russia officially called Wednesday on Macedonia to follow Moscow and recognise the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions, its ambassador to Skopje said.

Former Macedonian security services member Johan Tarculovski on Friday lodged an appeal against his ...

Greece said Friday it had filed a complaint with the Beijing Olympic committee (Bocog) over the use ...

SKOPJE, July 26, 2008 (AFP) - Macedonia's parliament approved Saturday a new government presented by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who has promised to speed up reforms needed for the Balkan country to join the European Union.

All of the 78 lawmakers present in the 120-member assembly late Saturday voted in favour of the new government.

ZAGREB, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Croatian police have detained a Macedonian national on suspicion that he used a farm worker as slave labour, police said Monday.

The Macedonian, 29, employed the man at his farm near the northern Croatian town of Porec before allegedly seizing his documents and forcing him to work without pay, HINA news agency cited police as saying.

ATHENS, July 18, 2008 (AFP) - The Greek prime minister rejected Friday a claim by neighbouring Macedonia that there were ethnic Macedonians living in his country, in the latest spat in a 17-year name dispute.

The two countries are locked in a battle over the right to use the name 'Macedonia', which applies to the former Yugoslav state and a northern province of Greece.

SKOPJE, July 17, 2008 (AFP) - Macedonia's opposition Social Democrats began a boycott of parliament on Thursday to protest the arrest of a mayor from its ranks over alleged links to organised crime.

ATHENS, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - Greece on Tuesday accused Macedonia of trying to torpedo efforts to solve a 17-year name dispute by calling on Athens to recognise the rights of a Macedonian minority which it refuses to acknowledge.

THE HAGUE, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - A UN war crimes court acquitted former Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boskovski Thursday of the murder of ethnic Albanians in 2001, but convicted and jailed his former bodyguard for 12 years.

THE HAGUE, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - The UN's Yugoslav war crimes court will on Thursday hand down its first judgment against Macedonian accused: a former interior minister and his bodyguard accused over the murder of ethnic Albanians.

THE HAGUE, July 8, 2008 (AFP) - The UN's Yugoslav war crimes court will on Thursday hand down its first judgment against Macedonian accused: former interior minister Ljube Boskoski and his bodyguard Johan Tarculovski.

SKOPJE, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - Macedonia's governing party VMRO-DPMNE which won an absolute majority in last month's parliamentary polls, has decided to change its ethnic Albanian coalition partner in a new government, a party official said Saturday.

SKOPJE, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - Macedonia's governing party VMRO-DPMNE which won an absolute majority in last month's parliamentary polls, has decided to change its ethnic Albanian coalition partner in a new government, a party official said Saturday.

GENEVA, June 28, 2008 (AFP) - A 25-year-old man of Serbian origin suffered serious wounds on Saturday in the city of Martigny after a Macedonian man sitting at his table shot him, police said.

SKOPJE, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - Fresh balloting will take place June 15 at voting stations in Macedonia where irregularities occurred during June 1 general elections, the electoral commission said Saturday.

SKOPJE, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski has cancelled his attendance at a southeast European summit in Athens next week due to a long-running name dispute with Greece, his cabinet said Thursday.

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - The United States urged the Macedonian authorities Monday to hold fresh elections in districts where polling was marred by violence.

'In some districts, violence took place,' said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

BRUSSELS, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed concern Monday about the conduct of violence-hit weekend elections in Macedonia and called on the government to address the poll shortfalls.

'Countries working towards NATO membership must make every effort to meet the democratic standards of the alliance,' he said in a statement.

ATHENS, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Greece was highly critical on Monday of elections held Sunday in neighbouring Macedonia, whose bid for NATO membership was vetoed by Athens in row over the country's name.