Zagreb, April 14 (CP) – Arsenal striker and member of the Croatian soccer squad Eduardo da Silva is to continue the recovery from his foot injury in his native Brazil, where he is to be treated by the Brazilian squad physio expert.
It is yet to be seen whether Da Silva’s recovery will be quick enough for him to be able to spend time with his national squad mates in Austria in June.
Zagreb, April 14 (CP) — The Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) has not received single offer for the purchase of 81.67 percent of the Adriachem company from Kastel Sucurac prior to the expiration of the deadline for the offers to be put in.
This represented the fifth attempt at selling Adriachem and the third offered under special conditions i.e. at the starting price of just a single kuna.
Zagreb, April 14 (CP) — The Zagreb Stock Exchange week began with a steep drop in the Crobex index and a high trade volume with some of the most liquid shares dropping to the lowest levels in a year.
Crobex value fell by 5.69 percent, the lowest since the start of January of last year, while its percentage drop is the highest since may 23, 2002, when it lost 5.9 percent in value.
Regular turnover was one of the highest over the past month totalling 130.2 million kuna, while the overall turnover stood at 147.8 million kuna. Some 5,215 transactions were made, an increase from the average 3,000 transactions.
agreb, April 14 (CP) — German president Horst Koehler is on an official three-day visit to Croatia. He will be meeting with president Stjepan Mesić, with whom he is expected to talk about Croatia’s accession negotiations with the European Union, regional issues and economic cooperation.
Koehler will also meet with prime Minister Ivo Sanader and parliament speaker Luka Bebić and take part in a German-Croatian Economic Forum.
Zagreb, April 14 (CP) — The trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, former Serbian intelligence chiefs, has started on Monday at the Hague War Crimes Tribunal.
Stanisic and Simatovic have been indicted on charges of crimes against humanity, that include murder and ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from Serb-occupied territory in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina from 1991 until 1995.
Zagreb, April 13 (CP) – Mario Ancic beat Italy’s Simone Bolelli to secure Croatia’s win in the tennis Davis Cup match in Dubrovnik and a place in the world group qualifications.
Mario Ancic beat Simone Bolelli in straight sets 3-0 after Marin Cilic lost to Andreas Seppi in a marathon match, which ended 3-2.
The overall result was 3-2 for Croatia, the result securing it a place in the qualifications for the world group.
Zagreb, April 13 (CP) – Croatian NGOs have failed to gather 450,000 signatures in favour of holding a referendum on Croatia’s joining of NATO.
Some 150,000 signatures were gathered during two weeks of the campaign.
The organisers are claiming they were low on money, the two-week deadline was too short to get enough signatures and the number of signatures that needed to be gathered was too big.
Analysts are claiming that the petition signing was not well organised and was not supported in the right measure by the media or prominent public figures.
Earlier, the PM Ivo Sanader said that a referendum on the issue might be considered if enough signatures were gathered.
Zagreb, April 13 (CP) – According to a survey conducted by a local television station, residents of Split would be happiest if they could see Croatian football squad coach Slaven Bilic as the town’s mayor.
Split residents see Bilic as the best possible man for the job, but why this is so was not revealed.
Residents of Split are not the only ones who find Bilic an able man. Their views are shared by Hamburg soccer team from Germany whose officials attempted to lure him with a lucrative deal to leave the Croatian national squad helm, but he decided to stay on and see the Croatian team through EURO 2008 and into the World Championships qualifications.
Zagreb, April 13 (CP) – Croatian swimmer Sanja Jovanovic has followed in the footsteps of Duje Draganja two days ago and won yet another gold for Croatia at the short-course pool world swimming championships in Manchester, England.
Jovanovic made it first in the 50 meter backstroke her time 26.37 setting the new world record.
Jovanovic said after the race that he had met the goal she had set herself, but what she actually achieved was still sinking in.
Zagreb, April 13 (CP) – The Hungarian-Bulgarian low-cost airline WizzAir has totally let its passengers down by suddenly cancelling its Zagreb to London flight and leaving the passengers to their own devices on Friday.
The ordeal the 150 passengers of the Zagreb Friday afternoon flight to London began after the flight was initially postponed for Saturday at 8 o’clock in the morning, but in the end the actual flight took place 3 p.m., nearly 24 hours after it should have taken off.
WizzAir officials made no attempt to contact the stranded passengers and the company did not even offer to pay for their hotel accommodation, as according to WizzAir rules, passengers have such rights once the flight is delayed by more than seven hours.
Some 120 passengers managed to find accommodation with friends and relatives, but some 30 were stranded at the airport and slept on the floor in the cold vestibule, including several elderly people and families with young children.
Although the Zagreb Pleso airport officials did all they could to ease the troubles of the tricked WizzAir passengers, they were unable to do much, as when they tried to contact the WizzAir office in Budapest no one answered the phone.
Although WizzAir has been known for similar gaffes in the past with passengers waiting for their flight to take off for hours or even being informed at the airport that their flight has been delayed by 24 hours, this has been the worst in the nearly two-year history of the company’s flights between Zagreb and London.
There are rumours that such little attention is being paid to passengers on this particular route, as WizzAir is gradually phasing out the London-Zagreb-London route in a bid to employ its planes elsewhere, as it is not happy with the bookings that are below 70 percent per flight.
According to the booking availability the flights are to terminate on September 13, 2008.
Although contacted and quizzed on the issue, WizzAir officials have not confirmed the termination, but claimed the six-month schedule has as yet not been updated.
