8 police officers die in gunbattle

Eight police officers died and dozens were wounded in a gunbattle in an ethnic-Albanian suburb of northern Macedonia that began on Saturday.

Sporadic gunfire on Sunday, more than 24 hours after the police operation against an "armed group" began, had subsided by early afternoon. The government said 14 members of the group were killed.

The incident adds the threat of armed conflict to a deep political crisis rocking the former Yugoslav republic.