FYROM leader dead in plane crash!

[method77]

FYROM President Boris Trajkovski has died in a plane crash in Bosnia-Hercegovina, officials say.

The plane, with eight others on board, came down in heavy rain and thick fog in mountains near the town of Stolac.

Emergency services searched for the plane, helped by Nato peacekeepers, after it vanished from radar screens.

The BBC's Nick Hawton in Sarajevo says Mr Trajkovski was seen as a key figure who helped broker a peace deal with ethnic Albanian rebels in 2001.

Helicopters were scouring the area in the hours after the crash.

Local residents reported hearing a loud noise at the time of the crash.

A spokesman for US peacekeepers in Bosnia said the plane lost contact with air-traffic controllers near the border between Bosnia and Montenegro.

Stolac is in a mountainous region of southern Bosnia, east of the Croatian port of Dubrovnik.

The plane took off from the Macedonian capital, Skopje, earlier on Thursday.

Mr Trajkovski and a group of advisers were on their way to an investment conference in Mostar.

Bosnian police said they found wreckage of the U.S.-made Beechcraft Super King Air 200 twin-engine turboprop near the village of Bitonja about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Sarajevo.

"We received confirmation from our patrols that they have found the wreckage of the Macedonian plane and that there are no survivors," Nedzad Vejzagic, spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation, told AP news agency.

The nine dead included seven conference delegates and two pilots. The delegates were believed to include senior advisers to the president.

International tributes were paid to the moderate leader.

Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign and security affairs chief, called it "a very tragic day for Macedonia, for all the people of that country but also for many people in Europe".

"President Trajkovski was a great man, a man of passion, a man who moved his country forward, not only the reforms but also to get it as close as possible to Europe," Mr Solana said in a statement.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, described Mr Trajkovski as having "contributed hugely to reconciliation in Macedonia" and as a strong supporter of Macedonia's ambition to become an EU member.

BBC

[Shawn]

I'm embarred to admit I have never heard of FRYOM. Macedonia yes, FRYOM no.

Is it a case like USSR = CCCP?

Or more like Burma ---> Myanmar?

[jipper]

FYROM = for your real own mouse

[method77]

no. There is a region in Greece called Macedonia from the ancient times (Alexander the Great?). When Yugoslavia spit in pieces, the new country wanted the name Macedonia. There was a major diplomatic incident about the name so they called it Former Yogaslavic Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM). That's the name. Sadly for the greeks, nobody actually calls it with it's real name.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/FYROM

[Shawn]

There is a region in Greece called Macedonia from the ancient times

His dad Philip.

heh, I'm really hyper on Ancient Greece.

Thanks for the explanation.

[method77]

his dad Philip was also king of Macedonia. I just said Alexander cause he is more famous than his dad. Good to see a person that knows about ancient greek history :)