12 August 2021 Skopje – Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani met Thursday with the US Ambassador to North Macedonia Kate Marie Byrnes and briefed her about latest political developments involving activities related to country’s European perspective in the coming period. Skopje – Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi met with Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League (MWL), who is paying a visit to the Republic of North Macedonia. Skopje – Commission for Relations with Religious Communities Director Darijan Sotirovski met Thursday with Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League. Skopje – President Stevo Pendarovski addressed Thursday promotion of project “MladiHub – building skills for employment, competencies and networking opportunities for youth”, which took place in the President’s Office on International Youth Day-August 12. Skopje – Agriculture and food production are considered a chance for success and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted even more the need to provide the population with healthy, safe and quality food, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said Thursday on International Youth Day 2021. Skopje – North Macedonia recorded 639 new cases out of 5,390 COVID-19 tests over the past 24 hours. Skopje – French experts on high-risk fires and Crisis Management Centre (CMC) Director Stojanche Angelov, accompanied by police, toured Thursday the Jasen natural reserve after reports of smoke and possible wildfire hotspots. Skopje – The State Election Commission (SEC) has signed the contract with German company “Dermalog” over the procurement of fingerprint scanners and their maintenance for the next four election cycles. The contract is worth about EUR 11 million, with the first 250 scanners to be used for the October 17 local elections set to arrive on August 25, says SEC President Aleksandar Dashtevski in an interview with MIA. Skopje – The Public Health Center will implement health protection protocols at the central event, set on Friday, marking the 20^th anniversary of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA), First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi stated Thursday. Skopje – Nordwind Airlines, one of the largest Russian airlines, has announced that after a 20-year break, it intends to re-establish the connection between Ohrid and Moscow with a charter flight, operating twice a week. Skopje – The 12^th edition of MakeDox Festival of Creative Documentary Film will take place on August 19-26 in four venues in Skopje, including Kurshumli An, Youth Cultural Center (MKC), Museum of Contemporary Arts and Museum of Macedonia. Athens – Overnight rainfall significantly helped the fight against the wildfires raging in Greece, officials said on Thursday. Kabul – Taliban militants have overrun the provincial capital of Afghanistan’s south-eastern province of Ghazni, officials said on Thursday, as worries grow about the security of the capital Kabul.