Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, April 30 (CP) – The Foreign Ministry has announced that the Greek authorities had extradited to Croatia Ernest Radjen and Dusan Maslovar, who have both been indicted for war crimes by the Croatian judiciary.

The Justice Ministry has put in a request for the extradition of Maslovar in July 2006 and of Radjen in October of 2006.

Both had been captured in Thessalonica in 2006.

Radjen has been indicted for committing war crimes against Croatian civilians in Skabrnja and Nadin in 1991, while Maslovar had been a member of the Silt terrorist group from Glina during the Homeland war, the members of which had been committing war crimes in the Glina and Banovina area.

Zagreb, April 30 (CP) — The Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic had denied claims by his Slovene colleague Dimitrij Rupel that official Zagreb had conned the public saying that in August of last year, during a meeting of two PMs Ivo Sanader and Janez Jansa, an agreement had been reached on the arbitration of the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the border dispute between the two.

The Croatian Foreign Ministry has provided an official Slovene document containing the statement of Slovene PM Janez Jansa following the Bled meeting in August of last year from which it can be clearly seen that in his statement, he himself was mentioning an agreement reached in principle on arbitration of the ICJ in The Hague in the search for a solution.

Zagreb, April 29 (CP) — Croatian signer/songwriter and poet Arsen Dedic will be playing the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall at 7:30 tonight, marking 50 years of his career.

His guests will include the Zagreb Philharmonic conducted by Pavle Despalj and Josip Cvitanovic.

Dedic’s film and TV series music, as well as many of his songs will be performed.

Zagreb, April 29 (CP) — Speaking for Croatian Television last night, Education Minister Dragan Primorac, said that the introduction of a national level final exam for graduating secondary school students would be postponed until next year.

Primorac said that a lack of information regarding the exam had prompted students protests, and that this problem would be rectified, so that the exam can go ahead as planned next year.

Pupils across Croatia held protests against the introduction of the exam on Monday, due to them not getting enough information about it and the schools not being fully prepared for the introduction.

Zagreb, April 29 (CP) — Croatian international midfielder Luka Modric of Dinamo, Zagreb has formally signed a transfer contract with Tottenham Hotspur football club in line with an agreement reached with Dinamo Zagreb and Luka Modric, for a total consideration of 21 million euro payable in instalments over the next four years.
The player’s contract is for a period of up to six years and the agreement is conditional upon the granting of a work permit.
The announcement was made on Tuesday morning on the Tottenham official web site.

Zagreb, April 29 (CP) – Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and his Slovene counterpart Janez Jansa, agreed on Tuesday to hold a meeting at the Bregana border crossing on Wednesday, as a sign of support for the Croat-Slovene initiative “Trade unions without borders”.

The two also agreed that the border regime between the two countries would not be changed and the conditions for border crossing will remain the same for all citizens.

The two countries have seen a lot of squabbles lately, the latest being a protest of a Slovene living on Croatian territory Josko Joras demanding that the patch he is living on be declared Slovene territory.
 

Zagreb, April 28 (CP) – The Dubrovnik-based Adriastar company has taken over management of two Montenegrin hotels in Kolasin: the Bjanka and Lipa hotels.

Adriastar has signed a contract on managing the hotels and organising the training of staff, the sale of the hotels’ capacities and promotion.

Adriastar has already signed a similar contract with the Queen of Montenegro hotel in Becici, a four-star hotel and have recently taken control of the Villa Vilina hotel on the island of Lopud.

Zagreb, April 28 (CP) – A section of a facade on an old building in the center of Zagreb fell onto the roof of a nearby house, damaging it, but luckily no one was injured in the incident.

The emergency services hurried to the scene and a construction firm is now making the facade safe.

Zagreb has been plagued by similar incidents over the past years and many facades in its centre have been redone and many more are on the to-do list.

It is not clear whether the Nova Ves house is on such a list.

Zagreb, April 28 (CP) – A debate in parliament has shown that according to a recent survey some 40 percent of Croatian children between the ages of 11 and 13 are not engaged in sports or any type of physical activity and some 90 percent of them watch TV for about four hours a day.

The children’s ombudsman Mila Jelavic has warned that engaging in sports has become a costly activity for parents, as most of these activities have to be paid for.

She has also said that not only top athletes among children should be encouraged in their activity, but that coaches should also encourage those less gifted, as such activity is pivotal to their health.

The trend of children getting heavier and even obese is surfacing in Croatia as well and the issue should be tackled using sports as a convenient means before this becomes a serious problem.

Zagreb, April 28 (CP) – Some 500 Zagreb secondary school pupils gathered in the Croatian capital’s main square in protest of the upcoming state exam for which they claim preparations have not been thorough.

The Zagreb pupils together with those in several other Croatian cities are demanding that the introduction of the exam be postponed until the ground is better prepared.

Holding banners reading ‘We will not be your guinea pigs’ and ‘Would the Minister pass the exams?’ the secondary school pupils have protested against their views not being taken into account prior to the introduction of this EU-sponsored exam.

The pupils are disapproving of the late introduction of the exam without serious preparation.

The crowds dispersed around 10:40 am local time and similar events took place in the eastern town of Osijek, in Virovitica, Split, Pula and some other Croatian towns.