28 July 2021 Skopje – OSCE and the EU marked Wednesday the start of a joint project for trial monitoring of cases of organized crime and corruption, which aims at improving justice administration and reducing corruption and organized crime. Skopje – The Judicial Council is ahead of the Council of Public Prosecutors in terms of dismissing judges. Unlike the public prosecution office and the Council of Public Prosecutors, which haven’t dismissed a single public prosecutor in the past two years, except the special public prosecutor Katica Janeva, the Judicial Council in 2021 alone has dismissed seven judges. Skopje – Amendments to the Electoral Code should enter parliamentary procedure on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest at the proposal of a group of MPs, while Justice Minister Bojan Marichikj expects them to be adopted by the end of July, before the Parliament’s summer recess. Skopje – President Stevo Pendarovski expects the OSCE/ODIHR recommendation not to change election rules immediately prior to elections to be respected, his office told Radio Free Europe in relation to the announced amendments to the Electoral Code. Skopje – A Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) for establishment of an Infrastructure Coordination Unit that will facilitate and coordinate the planning and implementation of large infrastructure projects in North Macedonia has been signed Wednesday between Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi and British Ambassador Rachel Galloway in attendance of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Head of Office for North Macedonia, Michela Telatin. Skopje – Minister of Local Self-Government Goran Milevski signed on Wednesday agreements on co-funding of cross-border cooperation projects with Bulgaria and Kosovo. Skopje – Police officers on Wednesday performed searches at a total of 20 locations in the capital, during which they arrested 12 people from Skopje, most of whom in their twenties and thirties, and are currently searching for three more members of the group. Skopje – Data of the Public Health Institute in the past 24 hours show that 47 new COVID-19 cases were registered. There were no deaths and 14 patients were registered as having recovered. Skopje — Vaccination against COVID-19 is taking place uninterrupted across North Macedonia. Field vaccination is also underway. A total of 500,995 citizens have been vaccinated to far, the Ministry of Health said in a press release on Wednesday. Skopje – We have no alternative to enforcing some restrictions. Measures for unvaccinated citizens, aiming to protect the entire population, will be discussed more thoroughly in August, Health Minister Venko Filipche said on Wednesday. Skopje – If the epidemiological situation remains as it is now, all students in a little over a month will return to in-person learning at school, with no restrictions as to classes or number of students in classrooms as protocols are in place, including ventilation, seating arrangement, changing classrooms, etc., Health Minister Venko Filipche said Wednesday. Skopje – Former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who was awarded asylum after fleeing to Hungary, has registered a company in a town near the capital Budapest. Skopje — “Vera Dreams of the Sea,” a film co-produced by North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania, has been included in the Orizzonti selection of the 78th Venice Film Festival. With Skopje Albanian Theater’s Teuta Ajdini-Jegeni in the title role, the feature tells the story of a sign language interpreter who “unveils present day Kosovo: a merciless postwar megaproject of corruption disguised as modernization and economic progress, where women are collateral damage to yet another highway in the making,” according to the film’s director Kaltrina Krasniqi. New Delhi – Afghanistan can become a pariah state if the Taliban continues to abuse the rights of its own people and takes control by force, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.