Skopje  - The ruling party's presidential Georgi Ivanov took a convincing lead in the first round of Macedonia's elections Sunday, with twice the number of votes as his nearest rival in early vote results.

With 15 per cent of the ballots counted, Ivanov had 38.49 per cent, more than twice as much as his nearest rival. The turnout among the 1.8 million registered voters was 51.68 per cent, the election commission said.

Skop

Skopje - Macedonian police on Thursday arrested a woman suspected of murdering her adult son and later dismembering and burning his body, local media reported.

Skopje, Macedonia - Prime Minister Nikola Grujevski was Monday, three weeks after troubled snap parliamentary polls, again appointed to head the troubled Balkan country's government.

Gruevski's nationalist VNMRO-DPMNE won 63 out of the 120 assembly seats and has an absolute majority in marred June 1 elections and now has 20 days to present his cabinet.

VMRO would nevertheless partner one of two ethnic Albanian parties to represent the restive minority, making up around one-quarter of the 2.1 million Macedonian citizens, but dominating in the entire north-western section of the country.