Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, April 6 (CP) – PM Ivo Sanader and US President George Bush met at 9:30 local Zagreb time at the PM’s office situated in Mark’s Square, where Bush is scheduled to address the Croatian people once the talks with the PM end.
People with valid passes including reporters and performers, as well as regular citizens for the event have been gathering at the Square since 8 o’clock.
It is not clear what the two are discussing, but they are scheduled to talk to the press at 10:30, after which the US president will be addressing the Croatian people in the Square.
The night did not pass peacefully for the residents of Zagreb, as US fighter jets flew noisily over the Croatian capital’s sky throughout the night and morning, brining back memories of Homeland war times, when this kind of noise was a regular occurrence.

Zagreb, April 5 (CP) – Police officers stumbled upon a decomposing dead body of a man as they were guarding the route that US president Bush’s motorcade was to pass between the Zagreb airport and city.

The police have said that the decomposed body of a man was discovered some 20 meters from the road leading to and from the airport.

The body was later identified as belonging to a 45-year-old man who had been reported missing since March 13 and is believed to have committed suicide.

Zagreb, April 4 (CP) – As of May 1 all Kosovo citizens will have to obtain visas in order to enter Croatia.

Croatia has recognized Kosovo on March 19 and has been placed on a visa regime, as it has still not adopted basic legislation on citizenship and passports, so that most of its citizens are travelling using documents issued by the UN temporary administration which fall under the visa regime.

The Croatian government has stated it could reconsider the issue of visas for citizens of Kosovo once the basic legislation on citizenships and passports is adopted in Kosovo.

Zagreb, April 4 (CP) – A former Constitutional Court president Jadranko Crnic has died at the age of 81.

He had become a judge of the Constitutional Court in 1984 and its president in 1990.  He was awarded another Constitutional Court president 4-year mandate in 1995.

Zagreb, April 4 (CP) – The cabinet has agreed that as of June 1 the zero alcohol tolerance for drivers be scrapped and returned to 0.5 tolerance.

However, this will not be true for all motorists, as professional drivers like ambulance, taxi drivers and the like will have to stick to old rules including young drivers between the ages of 16 and 24.

This latest decision will be embraced with particular delight by restaurant owners and tourists.

Zagreb, April 4 (CP) – US president George Walker Bush has arrived on Croatian soil, the Airforce One blue and white plane touching down in Zagreb at exactly five minutes to 3 p.m., local time.

The US president is arriving in Croatia to give his support to the country for its reform efforts and to acknowledge the fact that Croatia had been invited to join NATO.

Bush will be accompanied by his wife, Laura and a number of senior officials.

US president Bush and his entourage will be meeting with president Stjepan Mesic later today at a dinner organised in his honour and will be spending time with PM Ivo Sanader on Sunday after which he is to be addressing the Croatian people at Mark’s Square in Zagreb.

Zagreb, April 3 (CP) — Croatia has been extended an official invitation to join NATO in Bucharest, at the NATO summit which commenced on Wednesday evening.

The announcement was made by the NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Scheffer said that countries that have been invited have the right to feel proud at their achievement, as they managed to fulfil NATO conditions.

Attending the ceremony were president Stjepan Mesic and PM Ivo Sanader.

Croatia is expected to become a full NATO member in a year’s time.

Zagreb, April 3 (CP) — The Zadar team soccer player Hrvoje Custic, 35, who sustained a head injury in Saturday’s first division game with Cibalija held in Zadar on Saturday.

Although he was expected to fully recover after surgery and the medicinally induced come, he succumbed to an infection.

The young athlete had slammed into a concrete wall during the game severely injuring his head.

Zagreb, April 3 (CP) – After a shootout with the police and killing a riot policeman ret. Gen. Ivan Korade has killed himself in his summer home in Velika Veternicka in Croatia’s Zagorje area.

Korade, who has been charged with four counts of murder, has been found dead in his summer home after he had managed to kill one riot policeman as he randomly shot at the police party that had surrounded him.

It is as yet not clear what Korade used as his weapon of choice, but according to reports he had a whole arsenal of weapons in his hideout.

Apart from killing four people during his killing spree and killing a policeman today, Korade has also abducted a woman who managed to flee and attempted to murder another acquaintance but the bullet only grazed the man.

The circumstances as they are now will not allow for the riddle of how and why Korade snapped to be solved and the Zagorje area has sighed a sigh of relief following the news of Korade committing suicide.

Zagreb, April 3 (CP) – A policeman has died and several more are believed to have been injured in a shootout on the property owned by ret. Gen. Ivan Korade who has been avoiding police arrest for a week now.

The media are reporting that the shootout happened during an attempt to capture Korade by a pond on his property.

Some are claiming that Korade has been captured following the shootout and there have been claims that a secret tunnel some 1,8000 meters in length between his home and the pond had been discovered.

The police have confirmed that one policeman is dead, but not that Korade has been captured. It is believed that several riot policemen had been admitted to the local health facility in Zlatar and journalists are reporting of shooting still being heard coming from Korade’s property by the pond.

Korade has been charged with four deaths and and attempted murder and abduction following a killing spree of a week ago.