Blast Hits Police Station In Macedonian Capital

Police said no one was hurt in the blast outside the station in a mainly ethnic Albanian suburb of the city.

It follows a machine gun and mortar assault on a police station north of the western city of Tetovo on 12 July.

In 2001, Macedonian security forces clashed with ethnic Albanian fighters. An accord brokered by the West eventually ended the violence. The so-called Ohrid accord gave greater rights to Macedonia's 25 percent ethnic Albanian minority.

Yesterday, the Macedonian parliament adopted a law giving ethnic Albanians the right to fly the Albanian flag in areas where they make up the majority. Adoption of that law was the final provision of the Ohrid accord.

(Reuters)