Tour operators across the former Yugoslavia have spied a lucrative and very capitalist opportunity in the cult surrounding the old Socialist dictator.

In a bid to head off moves to reassess the visa-free regime, Macedonia says the number of asylum seekers in the EU from the Balkans is falling.

Macedonia’s overdue date for starting EU accession talks will be discussed when European foreign ministers meet next week, but Skopje fears new Greek and Bulgarian objections.

A witness in the politically-charged trial of ethnic Albanians accused of killing five ethnic Macedonians near Skopje said that one defendant was nowhere near the crime scene.

Macedonia’s supreme court has rejected an appeal by former police minister Ljube Boskoski, confirming his five-year prison sentence for illegally financing his political party’s campaign.

The extradition from Kosovo of two ethnic Albanians wanted in Macedonia for the killing of five people near Skopje may take a year, the lawyer for the suspects said.

The EU ambassador, Aivo Orav, has urged Macedonia to hurry up with forming a commission of inquiry into the events in parliament on December 24, which triggered a prolonged political crisis.