National.

Four Russian embassy officers in Macedonia, were attacked and beaten up by a group of 6 to 7 assailants Sunday night outside Skopje's Trend Cafe.
Among those attacked were Konstantin Bersenev, the first secretary of the Russian embassy, the consul-general, and Itar Tass the correspondent.

The Russian ambassador to Macedonia, Vladimir Solotsinsky handed in a protest note to the Macedonian Foreign Ministry in connection with the incident. "The Russian Ambassador has filed a note of protest to the Macedonian Foreign Ministry regarding the incident and demanded that the assailants be immediately found and punished." ,said the Russian embassy's press secretary, Svetlana Solodchul.

"A though investigation into the incident is ongoing. The police will make sure that the perpetrators be brought to justice." ,the Macedonian Interior Ministry's representative, Borce Pesevski said.

MD: This is bad news, such incidents could really affect the ties with a country, however we don't know the reason for the assault yet.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:33 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Several Macedonian journalists and photographers were honoured by the UN for work dealing with poverty in the country.
Todor Stojcevski won first prize for best story in a printed medium for his feature on Roma education; awards also went to Ljubica Grozdanovska and Maja Tomic.

Dragan Antonovski won an award for his documentary "The Key is in Your Hand", while Belinda Koka received the prize for best radio show. The photography prize went to Tomislav Georgiev.
The UN office in Macedonia presented the awards as part of UN day commemorations.

MD: Bravo!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:31 am | Permalink | Comments

Culture.

The movie "Contact", the Macedonian candidate for the academy awards has entered the programme of the upcoming 18th International Film Festival in Palm Springs, CA that is taking place in January. More than 230 films from 65 countries will be presented at the festival. It's aim is to show extraordinary works by new talented artists in the world of film and works by famous filmmakers.

"Contact” is a story of drama and romance of two people alienated from society, who nevertheless find love. The film stars Labina Mitevska, Nikola Kojo, Petar Mircevski, Vesna Petrusevska and many others. The film was shot in 2005 and is a German-Macedonian co-production.

It will also be presented at the Calcutta Film Festival in India and will then move to Seville, Spain and Los Angeles where, in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, it will be shown among a selection of films from Southeast Europe.

MD: Of course we will post more information about the festival when it opens in january.

[Palm Springs Filmfest.]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:26 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Some massive 100 meter long walls, at places two meters thick were unearthed near Negotino and have made Macedonian archaeologists to believe that they
have found the ancient town of Antigonea, third century BC.

They say that ethics still does not allow them to definitely state the discovery until they find a written
proof that Antigonea was located in the place of Gradiste near Negotino, along the Vardar River.

“We found 100 meters of the wall. The older part of stone and mud were erected in the Hellenic period, and the upper layers were up-built under the Romans when they attached the stones with mortar", said archaeologist Kiro Angelovski,
custodian counsellor at the Museum in Negotino and head of the excavations.

Archaeologists of the Museum in Negotino and the National Museum of Macedonia worked on the site between early August untill late September.
So far, the walls are the most sizable indicator that Antigonea was located at Gradiste in Negotino. The archaeologists support this thesis with many
findings at the “economic” facility near the hill where the suburban part of the ancient town was located.

MD: Recently we said that there were found archeologic treasures everyday. And again something new is discovered, this is very interesting! Who knows
what else is lying under the Macedonian soil.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:39 am | Permalink | Comments

Regional.

Greek foreign minister, Dora Bakoyannis said that there is no Macedonian minority in Greece, in an interview with
Dnevnik newspaper. Minister Bakoyannis appeared skeptical on a eventual shift in Greece's position over this issue, regardless of the fact that many European institutions, as well as the United States recognize the
existence of the Macedonian minority.

Bakoyannis was asked whether there has been any progress in Greece about the Macedonian minority, in particular now when Macedonians in Greece became a fact for the Council of Europe, for the European Parliament and for the US Department of State.

"I am very proud of the capacity of Greek democracy, all citizens of Greece have equal rights and Muslims in Western Thrace are the only minority in Greece".

"There is no so-called Macedonian minority. Whenever a political form of the name of the so-quoted or unquoted 'minority' comes up, it has always failed to muster nationwide support," Dora Bakoyannis said.

Greece is among a few countries in Europe which have not yet ratified the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities although they had signed it.

MD: They just keep denying, luckily they are losing the world's support on this more and more everyday.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:32 am | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

We were surfing on the net a while ago and we found a very nice interesting clip about the Macedonian history on YouTube.com .
It is made extremely professional.

Have a look:

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:29 am | Permalink | Comments

Welcome to Macedonia Daily!

We are running for about 2 weeks now and we have allready got alot of compliments from all of you visitors. Surprisingly we've got visitors from all over the globe; Australia, USA, Germany, Serbia, Bulgaria, Holland, UK, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, of course from Macedonia and even Greece, Taiwan, China and the Phillipines!

We would like to thank you for the compliments, the critics and for all the visits.
Also as you may have noticed, on sunday's there will be no updates unless if there is some breaking news. Regardless, keep visiting the site regularly and become a Macedonia Daily spotter by filling out the form, so you can contribute to Macedonia Daily.

click on the image below for Spotting info & the form:

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:45 pm | Permalink | Comments

Diaspora.

Macedonian-American businessman Michael Ilic is one of the new entrants to the Forbes annual list of world billionaires.
Ilic, son of Macedonian emigrants, is ranked 242nd in the list of 400 richest Americans, with $1.5 billion net worth.

He owns the Little Caesars Pizza brand, one of the world's largest pizza chains, with restaurants across five continents.
Ilitch Family is also the owner of the Detroit Red Wings icehockeyclub, several entertainment companies and baseball team the Detroit Tigers where after he
returned from the U.S. Marine Corps he was offered to play baseball, however Ilitch turned down the offer and went in the pizza business.

MD: His wife was first business lady of the year 2005 and his three daughters have each had their names engraved on the NHL Stanley Cup three times while
In the Stanley Cup history, only eight women have had their names engraved on the trophy.

Oh yeah, Ilitch's Detroit Tigers were in the world series finals this week, they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, too bad!

[Ilitch Holdings, Inc.]

[Forbes]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:30 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Macedonia announced that there will be an international tender for a third mobile phone operator in the country.
This was agreed today by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication,
the Agency for Electronic Communication and the expert from the European Reconstruction Agency, Ton de Liefde.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communication recommended to the Agency for Electronic Communication to announce an international public bidding,
aimed at more efficient utilization of the bandwidth and promotion of competition in the area of mobile telephony.

The main goals of the move are to attract foreign investments and lowering the prices of the operators' services, said the ministry.

MD:That's great, more investments, Macedonia is ranked the lowest in the region with foreign investments.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:28 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Dusko Lalicevic will become the first ever Montenegrin Ambassador to Macedonia, said the media.Lalicevic has already had contact with the Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski's office in order to set the date of the handing ceremony.

Montenegro's first ever ambassador in Macedonia is the director of the Budvanska Riviera travel agency.
He also was a head of the Montenegrin Pension and Disability Insurance Fund.

MD: Welcome Montenegro!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 10:49 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

the 7th Festival against weapons was opened this week, under the motto: “The finger 1 remains on the string 3! And not on the trigger!”.
The 7th five-day festival is full of events, including exhibitions, film screenings and music concerts wich are being held in the Youth Cultural
Centre and Children Theatre Centre in Skopje.


The band, Non-Stop was performing yesterday and String-Forces, Foltin and other bands will also perform within the festival. There are
also some films and a theatre play.

“The right to freedom of movement is strongly restricted because
of fear of a strayed bullet or somebody who decided to settle a traffic dispute in such way.
Therefore, let us forget about weapons. Weapons are not the answer to our problems.
It is in peaceful talk,” said Xhabir Derala, the organizer of the festival at a press conference.

MD: Weapons are a danger to the Macedonian future!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 10:45 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Yesterday it was exactly 94 years ago that Macedonia has lost the city of Solun to the Greeks officially.
It was on that day when the Greeks conquered Macedonia's biggest city and expelled the Macedonians living there.

For us this was a day of mourning but for the Greeks in Solun a celebration. Public buildings were dressed in blue and white, and a huge military parade was held in the city yesterday.

MD: Sad day in history and it is simply denied by the Greeks. The world has yet to see what happened back then. Today, there are almost no Macedonians left in the city of Solun and the ones who are, are claiming to be Greek now.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 10:36 am | Permalink | Comments

Fashion.

After our post recently about Macedonian Top modell Katarina Ivanovska, we are again proud to announce you that she is the new face of Dolce & Gabbana's Winter collection campaign.

MD: Wow, she just keeps signing new contracts with the most famous fashion brands in the world.

Look at the pics here:

[1]

[2]

[D&G Winter collection]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:10 am | Permalink | Comments

Culture.

The Italian Embassy in Skopje, the Italian Language and Literature Department
are organizing the sixth Week of the Italian Language at the Skopje University.
A new season of the Film Forum opened at the Dante Alighieri Italian Institute within the event yesterday and the films
“Miseria e nobilt” by Mario Matoli and “Sangue vivo”
by Edoardo Vindsper were also shown.

Today, "Food and Holidays in Italian Language and Culture” will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Arts.
The event will be accompanied with music and stage performances on the topic of food, and will be giving awards for
the most successfull works within the contest Cuisine and Absurdity.

Also there will an exhibition of modern italian authors and some gastronomic stands with typical products
and cuisine skills from Italy.

Nice, We love Italy. Many Macedonians of the older generation are saying that we are very connected and similar to the Italians.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:09 am | Permalink | Comments

Sports.

Slovenian media are speculating that Srecko Katanec will take his function back as head coach of Slovenia, after
the new Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Jankovic said that he and Srecko have a deal; if Ljubljana get's a new stadium , srecko would be
the coach of the national team again.

Jankovic is promising the new stadium will be built in 2008 and also that he will bring
NK Olimpija back to the first league.

Srecko Katanec himself however is denying all this.
"I feel great with Macedonia and that's why I accepted the FFM offer without hesitating, I am sure I haven't made the wrong choice", Srecko Katanec said.

He also said that an eventual contract with Slovenia is very improbable because he allready rejected 2 offers and
he called upon the Macedonian fans and the media to keep supporting the national team with every thing they've got while he and the players will
give the maximum.

That was just another rumour however, we hope he is going to stay for a long while now, at least that he will lead us to the EC.

[FFM]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:05 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Macedonian Foreign Minister, Antonio Milososki said the Macedonian Government is concerned about the situation of the Macedonian Minority in the neighbouring countries, however it restrains from crossing the point of interfering in internal matters of those countries.

"In line with the constitutional commitment, the Republic of Macedonia is concerned about the treatment of the Macedonian minority in the neighbouring countries,
however all actions relating this do not exceed the limits of internal affairs of the respective country"

"The treatment of the neighbouring countries towards the Macedonian minority ranges from recognition to utter denial",
he said to the weekly magazine of Euro integrations "Macedonia in Europe".

He also said that the Framework Convention of the Council of Europe states very clearly that the protection of national
minorities is not an inter-state matter, but is subject of international cooperation.

MD:Helping the Macedonians in neigbouring countries is the first thing our government should do, especially the ones in Greece!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:36 am | Permalink | Comments

National

The annual world press freedom list was announced yesterday.
The list measures the state of press freedom in the world. It reflects the degree of freedom journalists and news organisations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the state to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.

Macedonia is ranked 45th, which it shares with Cape Verde, Mozambique and Serbia.
The first place is shared by the Netherlands, Finland, Iceland and Ireland while Turkmenistan (167th), Eritrea (166th) and North Korea (168th) are at the end of the list.

Denmark (19th) has dropped from the first place because of serious threats against the authors of the Mohammed cartoons which were published in 2005. For the first time in years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists had to have police protection due to threats against them because of their work.

MD: Bosnia (19th) is surprisingly high though, we've never thought that. As for Macedonia, 45th is very bad. Press freedom is one of the most important things a country can have!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:35 am | Permalink | Comments

Culture.

The Macedonian film "Secret Book" entered the competition of the 30th International Film Festival in Sao Paolo, Brasil. The festival opened on the 20th of October and will last untill November 4.

The Macedonian film will have three screenings and is one of 100 films competing for the festival awards.

"Still we are looking forward to the festival in Manheim and Heidelberg in mid November where we would like to make a true European opening for the film. The French co-producers and actors are also interested in this", said film director, Vlado Cvetanovski.

Let's win some awards!

[Sao Paolo Film Festival]

[Secret book at Sao Paolo]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:35 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Croatian president Stjepan Mesic arrived in Macedonia yesterday for a 2 day visit.
Stjepan Mesic and our president discussed the priorities of both countries in their EU and NATO bids, as well as the economic cooperation and the situation in the region.

He also attended a meeting between Macedonian and Croatian bussinesman, delivered some speeches at the Assembly of the Croatian Community in Macedonia and scheduled a meeting with Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski.

Today, the Croatian President will pay a visit to Bitola. where he will open the Croatian Consulate in Bitola before holding talks with representatives of the Croatian-Macedonian Friendship Association. During his visit to Bitola, Mesic will also visit the archeological site of Heraklea.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 4:37 pm | Permalink | Comments

Diaspora.

Macedonian group "Bioritam" is going to Australia next week. They will stay there for 3 months and will be playing in the Balkan nightclub "JOY" in Preston, Melbourne and will be giving 3 concerts in Perth and Sydney.

Also Tatjana Lazarevska and Mile Kuzmanovski too are going to Australia, and will perform in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Wollongong.

MD: Nice, for our friends in Australia! If you are going there, take some pictures so we can post them on Macedonia Daily.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 4:12 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

The Ohrid lake was cleaned out this week by a group of divers in task of the Rotary Club, Ohrid. There were found several granates and bombs dating from the First world war, also some old engines and many plastics.

Some of the bombs were found in shallow waters of the lake where many kids have swum last summer. That is why these locations are immediately going to be cleaned by the divers.

"We know the exact places of the granates and the bombs in even shallow and deep places of the lake. We allready have a finished plan on how to clean it up", said Milutin Sekuloski, International instructor of the Ohrid diving club to Vest newspaper.
Next saturday the shores at the old city part of Ohrid will be cleaned.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 4:55 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

Decades ago, the former Yugoslav government began digging for oil in Macedonia. The project was stopped for unexplained reasons. However, interest has picked up again. Norwegian, Turkish and Kazakh oil and gas companies are planning to come to Macedonia to see how much oil there is under the surface at the untapped Ergelija field near Sveti Nikole in east Macedonia.

According to Vreme, the new Minister for Foreign Investment, and former Vice-President for Publicity and Marketing of the AMBO oil pipeline project, Gligor Taskovic has contact with the heads of some big world’s energy companies over the resumption of oil exploration in eastern Macedonia. The new government rated the development of the energy sector among its top priorities for the economic development of the country.

MD:That would be a big boost for our economy!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 4:38 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

A year round All Inclusive resort with an urban zone of over 1,000 houses and a ski center in the region of Kozuf mountain is expected to be finished in 2008.

The ski center is expected to be comprised of 40 kilometers of ski trails and will be located at a height of 1,500-2000 meters above sea level. The planners are expecting to fill a 600 bed hotel, 450 four-star 180 bed suites, 750 cottages, a shopping mall, casinos, a parking lot for 1,600 vehicles, a heliport and sport facilities.

The project is a Macedonian-Greek joint venture with a cost of 72 million euro.
The resort targets a staff of 950 and annual turnover of 22 million euro, mainly from foreign tourists. Many Greek citizens are allready visiting the region, it is only 70 kilometres from Thessaloniki and the plans for vacation cottages got many interest in the Netherlands.

MD: Very nice plans, it all sounds perfectly. Now hope it will be perfectly too.

[Ski Resort Kozuf]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 4:11 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

Prostitution in Macedonia has existed for a long time and will continue to exist in the future. The problem is that our country doesn't have any attitude against this problem so the sex trafficking has a free way and criminals can do what they want.

Very young girls enter the prostitution world by force and they can't find a way back to a normal life.
The ministry of internal affairs is saying that prostitution cases have drastically increased over the last years and many of the victim girls are not older than 18 years.

A report of the International Organization for Migration shows that, even more than a decade after the end of Cold War and several years after the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, it is evident that trafficking in the Balkans is still a significant problem which affects a big number of women and children. Also the Macedonia is not a transit region only, but also one of the major destinations for trafficked women as well. The organization estimates that up to 500,000 women are forced to work as prostitutes in Europe. The same source suggests that 120,000 women and children are being trafficked into the European Union each year, mostly through the Balkans.

[Veritas]

[Human trafficking]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 1:42 pm | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

Ornette Coleman is going to perform tonight at the Skopje Jazz Festival which kicked off last friday and ends this evening.
The visit of Ornette Coleman is absolutely the highlight of this year's 25th edition.

Coleman is an American saxophonist and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement in the 'sixties. The man who once said “Jazz must be free” is called the father of free-jazz and modern jazz in general.

Coleman was Born in Fort Worth, Texas on March 9, 1930, Coleman's father died when he was seven. His mother worked hard to buy Coleman his first saxophone when he was 14 years old. Teaching himself sight reading from a piano book, Coleman absorbed the instrument and began playing with local rhythm and blues bands.

Ornette is also credited for a new music concept where he gives equal place to melody, rhythm and harmony thus releasing improvisation that depends on them. The concept was called “Harmelodic” and pulled down the usual metrics and harmony structures enabling musicians to improvise at the same time.

MD: This evening is allready the end, let next year be as great as this year and those of you who are in Skopje, go see Coleman Tonight!!!

[Ornette Coleman]

[Skopje Jazz Fest 2006]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 1:20 pm | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

Macedonian model, Sanja Nikolic was celebrating her 24th birthday in the US. She went out to the "El" club in Los Angeles where suddenly at the next table was sitting the famous RnB singer, Usher.

When he heard about Sanja's birthday he immediately ordered some Champaign and started to sing "Happy birthday".
Sanja went to the States in August for her cousin's birthday in San Francisco, and she used her 2 month stay to make a tour in California.

"After the wedding I went to Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and other places.
On the day before my birthday we reserved a table in club "El" and i was really surprised when i saw Usher sitting next to us, he is one of my favorite singers."

"Around midnight he heared my friends congratulating me, so he grabbed the microphone and he started to sing "Happy birthday" in front of all the guests, I was very happy and this was my best birthday ever!", said a very lucky Sanja Nikolic.

MD: That's a nice birthday present! Congrats!

Here some photographs of Sanja:

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:08 am | Permalink | Comments

Sports.

Recently we were posting about Macedonians on ice but we also have some Macedonians playing Baseball.
Kevin Kuzmanov is one of them, He is the only Macedonian playing in the Major league and he does very well.

Kevin Kuzmanov was born in Newport Beach, California and grew up in Evergreen Colorado where he played high school baseball. He made his professional debut later in 2003 with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, hitting .272 with eight home runs and 33 runs batted in 206 at bats. Currently Kevin is playing for the Cleveland Indians.

On September 2 this year, Kuzmanov hit a grand slam home run on the first pitch of his first Major League at bat. He made history and became the first to hit a grand slam on his first pitch and only the third player in his first at bat.

[Cleveland Indians]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 12:01 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Nicole Kidman was in Macedonia recently, she stayed in our capital city for only 15 minutes! Kidman arrived in Skopje after attending the premiere of her movie "Fur" at the inaugural Rome Film Festival with a special plane at Petrovec Airport.

After leaving the plane in VIP style she headed to Kosovo with a UNMIK car and high security.
The actress was named goodwill ambassador of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, in January 2006, and the tour of Kosovo is her first visit in that role.

"I'm here to learn so that I can help your country at this crucial, crucial time for the future," she said.

MD: To become a goodwill ambassador is now a part of "Fashion" among the celeb's. They just see it as another sweet accessory.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 10:18 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

The Slovenian customs caught two smugglers from Strumica in march 2005 who were trying to get about 190 Macedonian treasures packed in bags for "grav", into Slovenia.
This week Slovenia finally sent the treasures back to Macedonia where they belong.
It was announced that there were 190 valuable artifacts dating from the ancient Macedonian period and were found in the Gevgelija-Valandovo region.

"We are very happy and gratefull to Slovenia for returning our treasures and that it didn't go somewhere else in the world, which happened us alot in the past", said Historian Pasko Kuzman.

"Everyday there are smugglers digging the cultural sites in the Gevgelija region, and everybody knows that it happens. Nobody does anything against it because the Gevgelija museum is not in charge for the archeological sites. Since 1993 the National Museum of Macedonia is", said Archeologist Boban Husenikov from the museum of Gevgelija.

MD: What a shame! Who knows how many of our treasures are stolen and smuggled into Europe which are now standing on the fireplace of some rich western european art collector! It's time our government takes care of these things.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:42 pm | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

A Macedonian Television Program, "Voskresnuvanje" by the authors Vlado Arsovski and Ivan Mitevski has won the Golden Olive award for best television program at the 11th international television festival in Bar, Montenegro.

Also the award for best direction went to Ivan Mitevski, the award for best script was won by Christina Oance from Romania, while Milun Rabrenovic of Montenegro Television won the award for best cinematographer.

19 countries participated at the Festival: Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Iran, Canada, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine and Romania. Out of 93 programmes applied (64 documentaries, 21 TV films and 8 programmes on ecology), the Selection committee selected those of the highest quality for the official selection of the Festival.

MD: Keep the awards coming!!!!

[TV Fest Bar]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:27 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

The Economist is reporting about Macedonia and the candidacy for the European Union saying that; everybody is expecting Croatia and Turkey to join next and a few would remember Macedonia. Macedonians have got used to being unloved and ignored. What is more annoying is that the world notices them only when bad things happen.

It also says that after the elections in july, Nikola Gruevski needed a coalition partner but did not made a coalition with the biggest Albanian party, wich was the party of Ali Ahmeti, but rather with a smaller party, wich we all know and heard of.

The most interesting thing of the report was that former Albanian guerilla fighters have been coming to Ali Ahmeti to suggest that, unless his party is taken back into the government, they should take up the arms again. According to the economist MR Ahmeti has told them to keep cool but adds that he cannot take responsibility for the consequences if his party continues to be ignored.

MD: Very good report of the Economist! Nobody in Macedonia is waiting for a new 2001 that would be catastrophic for both sides and mainly for the future of our country, but some do not understand that.

[the Economist]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:50 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

We haven't even started the talks for the European Union yet and allready Macedonia Daily has spotted Macedonian Euro's on the net.
Slovenia and the other new member countries still don't have their own euro's as currency. But well these Macedonian are specimens of course, but they do look interesting!

MD: The one with Alexander is nice, we wonder what Greece would do when that one actually is going to be on our euro ;) But our entrance into the EU is still far, far, far away.

Take a look at some here:

[One]

[Two]

[Three]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:26 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

Unicef comes with bad news for Macedonia with publishing a report about Education and language skills. Macedonia is on the last place in the region because the Macedonian children don't seem to know how to read and speak well. Also Unicef reports that the results of Macedonian children in the fourth grade are below international standards and the quality of education has decreased drastically in the last 8 years.

In Macedonia only 31% of children from 3-6 years old are going to kindergarten while it reaches 74% in Bulgaria, 72% in Romania and 50% in Albania.

The estimated amount of children in Europe who leave school after their 8th year of age is around 10%, in Macedonia 34% are not continueing to high school after primary school.

"Macedonia is behind in education compared to other countries in the region" said Hongwai Gao, the ambassador of UNICEF in Macedonia. He also called upon the government to increase its budget for education by at least 5%.

MD: The future of Macedonia lies in the hands of the children so this has got to be changed fast!

[UNICEF]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:06 am | Permalink | Comments

National.

The three boats we've posted about recently, were found in this village, Nakolec.
Up until 1960, the lake came up into the village, and the church of St. Nicholas was literally in the water. People would go by boat to the church to light up a candle and fish in their yards.
The village itself was originally under water, and some 100 years earlier, the houses were erected on wooden pillars. That explains the name of the village; Nakolec wich means "on a spike, or on a wooden pillar". Between the houses there were water canals, and people would move with boats, it all looked a bit like Venice.

Today, Nakolec is a site of many villa's, visited by its owners when they come back from the United States for holiday's. People want to restore the old Nakolec in his original state and make it a tourist attraction. Some say that there are photographs of the old village. They urge the government to make a plan for restoration and increase the region's tourism and economy.

MD: Alltough our country is very small, it is very rich in treasures and we keep discovering new things everyday.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 11:01 pm | Permalink | Comments

Culture.

A Macedonian cultural week was held in Portugal recently.
The seven day event contained presentations of Macedonian music, film, photography, literature and cuisine.

It started with a photograph exhibition by Aleksandar Kondev, a presentation of the films "Before the Rain" and "The Great Water", followed by literary readings with Macedonian authors Zoran Ancevski and Vera Cejkovska, as well as the poet Vasco Grassa Mura, who has won the Struga Poetry Evenings’ “Golden Wreath”, along with two other Portuguese poets.
The event was closed with a magnificent concert of Esma Redzepova.

MD: This was the first ever cultural contact between these countries and we sure need more of those!

[Culture MK]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 10:20 pm | Permalink | Comments

Sports.

Our national football team has again jumped a place on the Fifa world rankings, it's now ranked 50th thanks to the good results we booked against England and Andorra.
Macedonia has never been ranked this high so far, we're ranked above Norway, Finland, Slovenia and World cup 2006 participants; Angola and Togo.

Also Italy has jumped 3 places and is now ranked second while France, Argentina, England, Holland and the Czech Republic all went down a place.

MD:Just great! The ranking system really had to be changed, it was not fair, it still isn't really how it should be but it's getting better and better. Let's hope Macedonia will jump again after having played Russia and Croatia.

[World Rankings]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:33 pm | Permalink | Comments

Sports.

Vrbica Stefanov who recently announced he quits playing basketball allready stated that he wants to play again.
The Macedonian team captain who annulated his contract with Red Star Belgrade because of some private reasons is thinking of playing again in a macedonian league team.

"Things are going better in my private life with the problems I had. So i have more and more free time wich i could use to play for a team in the national league.
That should keep me in shape and to be fit for Macedonia's qualification matches for the European cup in Spain next year." ,Vrbica Stefanov said.

Immediately after his statements he got an offer from the Feni Industry team, however Stefanov said he has not thought about the offer yet.

MD: It will be great he makes his comeback soon, especially for the national team, we really need him for the EC!!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 4:11 pm | Permalink | Comments

Travel.

The 13th annual World Travel Awards was hosted this year in the Turks & Caicos islands.
The World Travel Awards were established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate the enormous achievements to be found in all sectors of the global travel industry. The voting is cast in over 200 countries around the world by many travel agents. Dedicated travel professionals and their clients are seeing the World Travel Awards as one of the best and most famous awards in the travel/tourism branch.

The world's leading airline award has gone to British Airways, world's leading casino is the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Nevada and the world's leading beach is Providenciales, Turks & Caicos islands.

As for Macedonia, Hotel Metropol in Ohrid is the winner of Macedonia's Leading Hotel award wich was competing against Hotel Bistra Mavrovo, Hotel Arka and Hotel Aleksandar Palace.

MD:Congratulations to Metropol again, they've won it last year too.

[Hotel Metropol]

[World Travel Awards]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 3:18 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

Three wooden boats were found on the shores of lake Prespa near the village of Nakolec, Resen decades ago. The boats are more than 4000 years old and they belonged to the Prespa inhabitants of the Stone Age.

All that time the boats have been lying unnoticed in the hall of the "Dom na kultura" in Resen untill two years ago some locals gave donations for the conservation of the boats dating from the Neolithic Period, and now the three can be seen in Resen free of charge.

“In my 28 years as a professional, I have never heard of the boats", says Dimitar Mucevski, an archeologist from Resen. “I know of foreign archeologists discovering such wooden boats in the pharaohs tombs, but I did not know there were such treasures here in Macedonia. These boats are made out of a single tree trunk”.

MD: Very interesting, soon we'll also post up an article about the unique village of Nakolec.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:54 pm | Permalink | Comments

Regional.

The European Union has threatened to take Greece to court about the quality of its drinking water, claiming more than 18,000 people are being exposed to toxins.

The Greek Health Ministry and an unnamed international institution conducted tests that found dangerous substances like nitrate, ammonia and arsenic in water supplied to 18 municipalities, mostly in Aegean Macedonia.
According to media reports, Greek authorities have been aware of the issue since 1999 and still they've nothing done against it.

MD: They've nothing done against it since 1999 and we don't think they will in the next few years.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:28 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

SET is reporting that the decentralisation in Macedonia has been succesfully in most areas according to mayors surveyed in a new poll by the OSCE monitoring mission.

It was focused on financial management, urban planning, education, inter municipal co-operation, local communities, relations between communities and equality of genders. The results show significant progress in these areas
The biggest problems in the financial area are administration of local taxes and fees.

Under a decision made by the previous government, municipalities manage some sports facilities. The municipalities of Ohrid and Struga were also given the management of the Lake Ohrid coast, with the aim of boosting tourism.

Today Macedonia has a total of 84 municipalities, following the new law on territorial organisation in 2004. Before then, Macedonia was divided into 123 municipalities.

[SET]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:16 pm | Permalink | Comments

Culture.

After having José Carreras and the Imperial Russian ballet, the organisers of the Ohrid summer festival announced Andrea Bocelli will be next year's guest at the opening on 12 july after receiving an e-mail where he accepts the invitation for a concert in the antique theater.

For those who dont know anything about Mr.Bocelli; he is a very famous operatic tenor singer. He has recorded many opera's, also various classical and pop albums, received a Grammy and was listed in the US top charts with four several albums at the same time.

MD: It's getting very good with the Ohrid summer, every year there are more and more famous people performing. Macedonia Daily is really excited about his visit and we will certainly be there next year.

[Ohrid Summer]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 1:55 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

11 years after the assasination attempt on Macedonia's ex-president there is still no one founded guilty or any suspect.

Certainly we all can remember the 3th october of 1995 when near Hotel Bristol on Makedonija street in Skopje a remote car bomb exploded at the moment Kiro Gligorov's car passed near by. The explosion killed Gligorov's driver and a pedestrian.
Gligorov survived with heavy injuries, he recovered several months before he returned to his presidential function untill the end of his mandate.

Research haven't brought any result however there were several speculations; According to the Croatian newspaper Vjesnik, the exploding car had an implemented land mine, one used by the Yugoslavian army and days before the assassination attempt, Gligorov had a meeting with Slobodan Milošević.
At the end the two presidents did not come to a fruitful dialogue, leading to speculation that the Yugoslav leader was involved.
Nothing is proven and there is no official research anymore, except in the media.

MD: It was a terrible thing that happened that 3th October, maybe it comes out who did this in the next 50 years.
Btw, did you know the 2000 Guinness book of World Records lists Kiro Gligorov as the oldest ever president of a country?

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 1:02 pm | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment

The Skopje Jazz festival is going to take place this week (20th-23th), where it allready will celebrate the 25th anniversary!
It's a great festival and get's bigger every year. Names like; Tito Puente, Ray Charles, BB King, Paco de Lucia, Youssou N'Dour and Al di Meola have allready perfomed on there.

This year there will be fantastic performances of the Italian Stefano di Battista quartet, Vinicius Cantuaria from Brasil and many others..
The first evening opens on Friday the 20th with the Andy Bey quartet(USA) performing in the Univerzalna sala at 20.30 and will end with Wibutee from Norway performing in Club Hard Rock at 00.30.

MD: This is a great festival, one of the greatest jazz festivals in Europe. So we hope it will continue for another 25 years and more!

For ticket sales and other information go to:

[Skopje Jazz Festival]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 10:44 am | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

The famous song Caje Sukarije of our Esma and siki siki baba of the Kocani Orkestar are going to be on the soundtrack of the new movie of Borat Sagdijev, played by British comedian Sasa Baron Cohen.

The name of the album will be "Stereophonic musical listenings that have been origin in moving film Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan". Besides the Esma and Kocani orkestar songs it will also have the legendary "Ederlezi" song of Goran Bregovic. The soundtrack will be available when the movie comes out in cinema's across Europe.

MD: Allthough he is hilarious, we don't know if he still is when he starts messing Macedonia in his jokes. Imagine you were a Kazakh, how would you feel? But well, we will still laugh our asses off!

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:49 pm | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

Tamara and Vrcak won the finals of the MAKFEST 2006 festival in Stip this weekend with their song "Sedmo Nebo". Aleksandra Pileva finished second with "Srebreni Vojnici" and Zoran Stamenkovski third with his song "Se na svoe mesto".

The award for best text was won by Ognen Nedelkovski for his song "Solza po Solza", Maja Vukicevic got the best stage performance award and the traditional journalism award was given to Ivan Bekovic for his music website "MMM".

MD: Congrats to them! and to MMM.com.mk!

[MMM]

[Makfest]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 9:31 pm | Permalink | Comments

National.

Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski made his first official visit to Germany today to get German support for Macedonia's EU and NATO candidacy.
He talked with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the EU, Nato and reforming Macedonia's education sector.

Germany holds the rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2007. "We really expect some support and we are willing to work for this and to change many things in the country," Gruevski said, adding that fighting crime, boosting the judicial system and joining the EU in 2013 and NATO in 2009 are top government priorities.

Merkel, who welcomed the Gruevski at the chancellery with military honors, replied: "We want to do everything possible to ensure Macedonia has a good path to the future."

The visit continues on Tuesday and Gruevski will also talk about the possibility of German investments in Macedonia.

MD: Let's hope Gruevski will lead our country into a good future. Btw, Angela Merkel is the most powerfull woman on the earth as stated by Forbes Magazine.

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:57 pm | Permalink | Comments

Food and drinks

We all know our lovely wines from our sweet homeland, but internationally it is not so known allthough we've got very good wines wich as for the taste certainly can compete with others in the world. We've allready won many awards for our wines. Recently at Mundus Vindi '06 in Germany, Fonko's chardonnay won the gold medal. A silver medal in France for the Muscat 2005 by Vinery Popov and many many others.

It's probably the way we present it or sell it why they are no succes. The winemakers blaim the politicians and the bussinesmen blaim the winemakers, in the meanwhile people are slowly trying to promote our wines with the help of USAID.

4,000 small vine growers with an average holding of 2.3ha dominate the industry. They sell grapes to medium and small size wineries that produce and market wines.
There are about 38 wineries in all of Macedonia, 25 of which export on foreign markets in more than 26 countries around the world.

MD: Lets hope our wines will get international fame soon. Macedonia Daily is allready sipping on some t'ga za jug!

Take a look at:

[Wine MK]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 8:55 am | Permalink | Comments

Entertainment.

How many of you know this girl? I bet no one unless you are living in Holland.
Macedonia Daily presents: "Touriya Haoud" This girl, born in the Netherlands to a Macedonian mother and a Moroccan father is an actress, model and singer. Not just an actress, model or singer but a succesfull one too!

A friend of Touriya made her participate in a modeling contest. Touriya not only won, but also from that moment on, she never looked back. She became a model for Tommy Hilfiger, Replay, posed in Playboy, Maxim and made commercials for Campari and TIM, Italy's leading telecom network where Naomi Campbell was her predecessor.
Inbetween her modeling, Touriya took various acting classes and landed a lead role in the popular Dutch television series "Hartslag", the Dutch version of ER, soon followed by her movie debut in the Dutch movie "Shouf Shouf Habibi" wich was not only accepted to the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, but was also honored with the Public Choice Award.

In 2005 she went to Hollywood where she got a role in her first U.S. movie, "Five Fingers" and soon she will be seen in the movie "Prisoners of the Sun".


MD: She is probably the only Macedonian in Hollywood and not known at all among the Macedonians. And Oh yeah, she is married to American actor Greg Vaughan. :(

[Touriya on IMDB]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 6:50 pm | Permalink | Comments

Diaspora

Macedonia Daily was very surprised about the fact that there is even a Macedonian Icehockey club! Icehockey? yes! ICEHOCKEY!! The team is called Macedonia Lions and they are based in Toronto, Canada where the team allready exists since 1945.

Macedonian Lions are playing in the Canadian Multicultural Hockey League and the tournament will be held on 27-30 december of 2006.

MD: This is interesting! let's hope they will get good results on the ice in december

For more information go to:

[CMHL]

Posted by Macedonia Daily at 12:21 pm | Permalink | Comments