23 July 2021 Skopje – North Macedonia recorded 36 new cases out of 3,569 COVID-19 tests over the past 24 hours. Skopje – Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Arjanit Hoxha and representatives of the eight planning regions in the country signed Friday agreements on financial support towards their development in the field of agriculture and rural development. Skopje – The government through the Ministry of Information Society and Administration is strongly committed to using the benefits of the ICT industry in a bid to create advanced information society, Minister of Information Society and Administration Jeton Shaqiri said Friday. Skopje – President Stevo Pendarovski presented Friday state decoration “Order of Merit” to author Goran Stefanovski (porthumously), singer and actor Zafir Hadzhimanov (posthumusly), professor Remzi Nesimi (posthumously), and Alkaloid CEO and Handball Federation President Zhivko Mukaetov. Skopje – Former head of the secret police Sasho Mijalkov and six members of a now defunct unit of plain-clothes police unit were acquitted Friday after being tried in the case commonly referred to as “Torture” for the way former interior minister and party leader Ljube Boshkovski was arrested in 2011. Skopje – Vaccination against COVID-19 is taking place uninterrupted across North Macedonia. Field vaccination is also underway. A total of 481,268 citizens have been vaccinated to far, the Ministry of Health said in a press release on Friday. Skopje – NATO membership has offered North Macedonia the chance to enrich both defence and political cooperation with countries important for the Alliance and the European Union. We’ll use this opportunity to prove that North Macedonia is a country that keeps its promises, a country that can be counted on and a country that invests in its defence, as well as in the values of the Alliance, Minister of Defence Radmila Shekerinska said in Lisbon on Friday. Skopje – The Ministry of Finance said that North Macedonia fully repaid on Friday the EUR 500 Eurobond issued in 2014, which proves the institution’s strong commitment to stabilizing debt and limiting it within the Maastricht criteria, i.e. under 60% of the GDP. Ohrid – UNESCO’s advisory bodies have given North Macedonia and Albania two more years to take measures to implement the recommendations included in the reactive missions of the World Heritage Committee to avoid the region of Ohrid being placed on its list of endangered cultural and natural sites. Brdo pri Kranju — At today’s European Union’s General Affairs Council session, ministers will probably also raise the issue of accession and enlargement, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov said ahead of the start of the informal GAC ministerial meeting on strengthening the Union’s resilience to crises, taking place in Brdo Castle near Kranj in Slovenia on Friday. Athens – Ahead of Friday’s informal meeting of the European Affairs ministers in Slovenia’s Brdo pri Kranju, Greek Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis voiced support for the European Union’s enlargement with the Western Balkans, pointing out that’s a dominant goal in Greece’s foreign policy, MIA’s Athens correspondent reports. Sofia – The dialogue between Bulgaria and North Macedonia must continue in the future, to achieve the only and common goal – the country to start negotiations with the EU, Bulgarian caretaker Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev said Friday. Washington – The new government, ratified by parliament on August 30, 2020, has taken steps to improve the investment environment in the country, according to the 2021 Investment Climate Statement on North Macedonia released by the U.S. State Department on Friday. Tokyo – North Macedonia’s delegation of athletes, led by flag bearers Dejan Georgievski and Arbresha Rexhepi, marched on Friday afternoon in the parade within the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games.