When he was Defence Minister in 2004, Roncevic put out a tender for the procurement of 76 non-combat vehicles for which some 35.9 million kuna was secured for by the Ministry.

However, after offers from companies like Land Rover, Mercedes and such started pouring in, Roncevic suddenly and without explanation annulled the tender and immediately after this bought 39 military lorries from the Eurokamion company which represents the Iveco firm. Some 34.4 million kuna was the price paid by the Defence Ministry for them.

Following the annulling of the tender, Roncevic disbanded the commission which looked into offers put in and formed a new one ordering that it immediately close a direct deal with Eurokamion.

However, later it was discovered that had the Defence Ministry ordered the trucks from any other of the companies that put in an offer, the price for them would have been 19.6 million kuna, so Roncevic created a budget loss of 14.8 million kuna, a move he did not answer for so far.

The murky business regarding the lorries was something president Stjepan Mesic warned of back in 2005 with them being rejected by Roncevic as electoral propaganda by Mesic.

This is the first times Pula and Belgrade will be linked in this way since 1991.

The Prosecution has interrogated the witness 86  for six hours and the defence has asked for even more time for cross-examination, as they believe this to be a key witness.

The explanation for the website being set up is to enable better understanding of the work of the agency by the general public and facilitate contacts with them.

It has become a common thing for intelligence agencies to put up their web sites, this being done a long time ago by the CIA or Mi-6.

The goal of this year’s event is heightening the visibility of gay people in society and fight against homophobia, which is till very present in Croatian society.

Many public figures, as well as political parties and individuals like president Stjepan Mesic have given their support to the event, but such courtesy was not ever extended by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.

Some gay activists have said this was not surprising, as the ruling party has portrayed itself through its actions as a homophobic and non-European party.

Although large numbers of police will be guarding the march and its participants, as they did last year, there are fears of violence against those taking part, as last year there have been several incidents of participants being bashed after the march and the police failing to appear at the site on time to protect them.

Also, last year, an individual prepared petrol bombs to throw at those marching, but was stopped on time.

The explanation gives is that some two dozen fires were burning during the game in the section of the stadium occupied by Croatian supporters.

The HNS has announced it would appeal the fine.

The incident happened in Zagreb’s Maksimir area and it resulted in traffic being halted for several hours in the street where it occurred.
 

As many as 39 percent of those surveyed believe the EU was neither good nor bad.

Jouyet said this during a conference on the Balkans’ situation. His words represent the strongest confirmation so far that the negative outcome of the Lisbon Treaty referendum in Ireland would not impact Croatia’s accession.

The vehicles allowed in the area will be issued special permits.

The people working in the old town will be parking their car at the nearby large garage with a shuttle bus connecting the two points.

An agreement on this was signed earlier with the Iranian National Oil Company (NIOC) after a tender had been put out in February 2007.

The contract covers oil prospecting and drilling for the next five years and in case of actually coming across diposits of hydrocarbon the contract is to be extended to 25 years.

The project is valued at $142 million.

According to a Zagreb daily, talks have been continuing over the past few months on the trasaction which experts say is worth more than €60 million.

Kerum has opened several basic food stuffs’ shops across the Croatian capital after starting the business in his native Split and has bought a number of landmark cafes in the capital, as well as a large building site in the very heart of the city.

The Univesity will start operating in line with the Bologna process in September 2009 and will be housed at the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik.

The annual tuition will be €5,000 with stipends being secured for the students by different domestic and foreign companies, trusts and banks.

The had gone missing from the Duga Uvala beach near the northern Adriatic resort of Pula.

The emergency services and search teams were immediately dispatched to the area and there had been a brief pause in the search between the early hours of Monday and 7 0′clock when the operation resumed.

So far there has been no sign of the woman.

The drugs were hidden in a handbag of a 27-year-old Paraguay woman who smuggled the drugs into Dubrovnik where she was awaited by a 57-year-old Croatian national.

The par was arrested on June 21 and no further details of the operation were disclosed.

The Turkish flag replaced the regular Foreign Ministry texts as well as a few sentences in English and Turkish thanking their team members from Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The Turks had played the game well and did not let the Croatian squad develop its game, this resulting in the first goal of the match being scored in the 119th minute of the game by Ivan Klasnic for Croatia, only to be followed by a Turkish goal that followed just three minutes later, scored by Semih Senturk.

This lead to the penalties shots which three of Croatia’s four shooters missed, while only one of the Turks missing theirs, bringing the final result to 3-1.

The Pionir company responsible for the construction works at the site is investigating the causes of the incident.
 

In a lengthy article in the last issue, the editors explained that the influential weekly would have to shut down due to financial problems despite its circulation being good and all the costs being cut to a minimum.

It was also stressed that Feral is shutting down not because it has not been successful, but had not attracted enough adverts and the circulation itself was not enough to keep it afloat.

The editors have also spoken of the weekly being awarded as many international award as were received by all other Croatian papers together.

The editors promised to do all in their power to re-start the paper in the near future.

The Croatian Competition Agency has decided it was safe to allow the transaction, as Diekmann has no other operations in Croatia.

The takeover of the company will have an impact on publishing of news magazines and women’s magazines, monthly publications dealing with health, those about computers and sports magazines.

The stickers valid for six months and costing 35 euro will be mandatory for all motorists, the measure causing an uproar, as short-term cheaper stickers have not been offered and many tourists who will just be passing through Slovenia on their way to the Croatian coast will have to pay for the six-month toll sticker.

The two chapters are the first ones that have had had set conditions for their opening.

So far Croatia has opened 18 negotiating chapters and two have been temporarily closed.

This comes following Ireland’s failed referendum on the Lisbon treaty which may slow down Croatia’s EU accession, although most EU leaders are saying that the failure of the adoption of the Lisbon treaty on EU expansion should not affect Croatia’s EU bid.

The local Split alert centre was informed on Monday that a Bosnia-Herzegovina female was missing and a search operation was immediately launched by the local rescue service and fire fighters.

The deputy PM Damir Polancec who was also at the opening failed to drink that much one in one go, saying he had not had anything to eat.

After managing all the wine in one go, the Tourism Minister Bajs said that the zero alcohol tolerance for motorists was to be relaxed as of June 17, but told those present to drink responsibly.

The zero alcohol tolerance for motorists had been introduced several years ago and is now being relaxed, as the results expected by the authorities had not been achieved, as the law did not end up being a deterrent for those who drank and drove.

The law is to now be relaxed for motorists who do not commit a driving offence, but the zero alcohol tolerance is to stay in place for young drivers and driving professionals.

The new national organisation, mimicking that of the US FBI should become an effective means for more in-depth investigation into organised crime and corruption.

Once the new body is fully established and operational it will be presented to the public.

It is yet to be seen whether this new police body will be more effective in fighting crime and corruption and work as the operational force of the USKOK organized crime and corruption busting state body.

Once the law is scrutinized and passed smoking will no longer be allowed in all public and work places, but small cafes may be exempt from the ban.

Smoking will only be allowed in workplaces and public places in sealed-off areas provided by employer or restaurant or café management.

Smokers not abiding by the ban will be looking at 1,000 kuna fines and owners of the establishment or business will be fined up to 250,000 kuna.

It is not yet clear when  the legislation will be passed and implemented, but there are some indications that the gradual introduction may start as early as July with the small café cigarette smoke ban coming into effect by mid-2009.

Early returns from the Irish referendum show that 53.4 percent of the voters voted against the treaty.

The result may endanger future EU expansion that should follow those of 2004 and 2007.

Out of all the candidate countries, Croatia is the only to have been given guarantees of entry under the existing rules.

Croatian president Stjepan Mesic has commented on the results by saying he was surprised with the results of the Ireland vote, as the EU had helped Ireland resolve its problems through the use of accession and structural funds and the Irish should understand that others have the right to development.

The government has also reacted to the news by saying the Croatian believed the EU would find the necessary institutional solutions stressing that Croatia’s future within the EU was not in question.

The video camera went missing from his bag as he walked down a Zadar street.

The stolen camera is valued at about 7,000 kuna.

Grabar Kitarovic ended up being better than the rest of the Croatian delegation comprising high ranking Croatian army officers and the Defence Minister Branko Vukelic.

Grabar Kitarovic did not bat an eyelid over her win and explained that she had received shooting training by her father when she was a little girl.

Grabar Kitarovic had recently taken up the job of Croatian Ambassador to the US and had prior to that been at the helm of Croatian diplomacy.

The head of the anti-corruption agency USKOK Dinko Cvitan called on all state institutions and not only the police to report on corruption within their ranks even when they have not valid evidence, but only suspect corruption.

The president of the national council for the monitoring of corruption curbing has stated that the problem on the world scale amounted to up to 1, 500 billion annually, while some six billion kuna was Croatia’s share.

The Justice Minister Ana Lovrin has stated that Croatia had done a lot in the fight against corruption saying that the next step was the drawing up of a strategy aimed at quashing corruption, which should be presented to MPs next week.

The European Commission has described the Croatian repressive framework aimed at fighting corruption as well set up with tried corruption cases growing by 34 percent in 2007 compared to 2006.

IKEA had bought a land plot near the Croatian capital Zagreb back in 1992, but later sold it, as it decided to postpone its arrival on the Croatian market.

An IKEA manager for the region has said that it was still not clear when the Croatia operation will begin, but the 2010 to 2020 plan has Croatia in it.
 

The ruling of the Dubrovnik court was incredibly fast following complaints lodged by neighbours living in nearby streets, the document signed by 120 people.

A meeting between the neighbours and the hotel’s management was held back in February and it was agreed the problem would be resolved by May 1, a promise not kept.

The inspection had recorded noise levels in the night hours well above the legal norms.

The hotel was bought by the Rixos Hotels company from the Bulgarian Moultigroup in March 2004 and invested some €40 million in it. Confrontations with neighbours have plagued the efforts since the start and there are pending charges filed against the hotel for the renovation making the hotel larger than it originally was.

The news of Metlicic having to undergo surgery to repair his meniscus has dampened the good spirits that the team was in and has also sparked worries that the team captain will not be ready for the Olympics.

Metlicic is expected to return to the team in a month’s time.

The power plant had been shut down after a vent had malfunctioned and caused panic across the EU and the neighbouring country, but the alarm had been a false one and the problem had not caused damaged to the environment or people.

The Krsko nuclear power plant is jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia and is situated some 50 kilometres from Zagreb.
 

The Environment Protection Ministry conducted the testing between May 12 and 30 and the beaches deemed as moderately polluted were mostly in the Split and Dalmatia county and two others in the northern-most sections of the coast.

The tests are conducted every two weeks across the coast by authorised laboratories and run between May 1 and the end of September each year.

The Czech diving instructor was surprised when despite being given a valid work permit by the local police in the Rijeka area, where she is a member of staff in a diving club she learned that in Croatia such work should not be done by women, under the law.

Also, women in Croatia are barred from working in professions that call for carrying more than 15 kilos of weight or working under the earth’s surface, as well as in heightened atmospheric pressure.

Although the women had been working without problem in Egypt and the Czech Republic, in Croatia this represents a breach of the law.

This strange provision of the law means that the daily tasks of nurses who manage much more weight than 15 kilos each day or those working in supermarkets are actually violating the law by performing regular tasks called for by their jobs.
 

The hotel opened after seven months of legal wrangles over category licenses.

Now that the problems have been solved, the five-star Bellevue Hotel is expected to be 70 percent booked during the season with the British and the Americans being the main guests.

The 22-year-old had arrived in Zagreb on Friday and met two men that he spent the day with. Later, another Swede arrived and joined the group and the two were offered to sleep in the flat of one of their new friends.

Once they were ready to leave the flat after staying the night there, one of the two Swedes realised he was lacking some money and what is more important a EURO2008 ticket.

After realizing what had happened the robbed man and his friend returned to the flat, but were not let in.

Split rescue services managed to bring his body down from the mountain using a helicopter and by the late morning it was already at the coroner’s office in Split.

Although it is believed the man died from heart failure, more will be known once a post mortem is carried out.

Bilic spoke to the press prior to the first game for the Croats at the EURO2008 to be played on Sunday and his conduct although completely justified, may also be a reaction to the nerves felt prior to the start of the championships.

The Slovene police have decided to blindly follow the word of law which stipulates that apart from protocol vehicles none others should be flying flags, so this means that the football fans are in breach of the law.

All those who had made their way towards Austria through Slovenia with flags on their cars were forced to pay a € 41 fine by the traffic police who would flag them aside once they got into Slovenia.

The border police have not been warning the drivers to take down the flags, as they would be fined once the start driving on Slovene roads.

The cruisers MSC Musica, Zenith, Costa Serena and Emerald Princess all came in so that extra policemen had to be called in to regulate traffic of both vehicles and people, as there are huge crowds in the old segments of the city.

The local media have been warning locals not to leave their homes unless necessary and to refrain from using their cars in the city centre.

The latest incident happened on Monday, when crime reporter Dusan Miljus was savagely beaten in front of his home by attackers wielding metal clubs.

Miljus, who has been covering crime for 20 years had been receiving threats of attacks for a long time, but did not seek police protection.

The journalists are protesting in a bid to highlight the fact of the alarming state of affairs in the Croatian society where attacks on journalists have become a frequent occurrence and perpetrators are never found.
 

The fish had been tied by its tail as it was waiting for a customer and when the Czech tourist decided to take a picture of it, it attacked after the third picture was taken.

Luckily for the attacked snapper, a Czech surgeon carrying basic medical equipment was at hand to stitch back the nose that was hanging on a thread.

The two men have been placed in a Panama jail after the police found small quantities of cocaine and heroin on their ship Therese administered by the Croatian Split Ship Management shipping company.

The representative of the Croatian company said he was convinced the two would be set free, as they were innocent.

The shipper has commissioned two lawyers from a renowned Panama law practice to represent the two.

The Foreign Ministry has not confirmed the happenings, as it is still gathering information on the incident.

The plant had to be stopped while experts detect the problem and resolve it.

The Croatian Electricity Board (HEP) has informed customers that despite the problem there would be no shortage of power, as it would dip in its other energy resources.

Meanwhile, there had been no word of warning from the Croatian Environment Protection Ministry on how dangerous the problem may be, while at the same time the European Commission issued a warning to all EU countries of the incident and the possible implications.

There had been no word on whether the any dangerous substances had been released into the air.

She was acquitted twice and twice the Supreme Court overturned the ruling paving the way for a second re-trial.

Her business partner, Igor Knezevic had been given a suspended two-year sentence for his role in the case.

The original indictment drawn up in 2003 has shrunk to a single charge from four.

There existed a wide-spread belief among regular Croatians that Neveka Tudjman had been using her good fortune to secure a good business position with her and her younger brother opening several businesses that went bust at the time of her father’s death.

He was hit in the stomach in the evening hours and lay on the ground until dawn, when he was found by his grandmother.

It was established by the police and investigative judge that the man was killed by his own gun and no one else was implicated in the killing.

He is survived by his wife and unborn child.

A total of 30 foreign and domestic parformers will be appearing over the next two days with The Prodigy billed as tommorrow’s top performers.

Croatia is in group B along with Germany, Poland and hosts Austria.

Their first game is scheduled for June 8th against Austria.