Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, March 20 (CP) – The Slovene Foreign Ministry has informed the Croatian Foreign Ministry that as of Friday, March 21 Croats holding old identity cards will no longer be allowed over the border into Slovenia.

The Slovene Foreign Ministry explained the old identity cards no longer match the EU security standards.

Croatian nationals holding a valid passport will be let through as well as those with updated identity cards.

The ‘old’ identity cards that are of a different shape and look to that of the ‘new’ ones still represent a valid document within Croatia’s borders.

Zagreb, March 20 (CP) – A fishing boat crew stumbled upon the body of 40-year-old fisherman Adam Vlacic from Labin who went missing near Rabac off the Istrian coast on February 18.

The police have as yet not confirmed the identity of the body, but his wife has told the police it would most probably be that of her husband Adam.

The body was found in a fishing net off the Cress shore by a fellow fisherman.

A post-mortem is to be carried out on the body to establish the cause of death.

Zagreb, March 20 (CP) –Officials from the Slovenian Agricultural and Forestry Land Fund yesterday tried to conduct an inspection south of the river Dragonja, but were prevented from entering Croatia by Croatian border police.

The Croatian Ambassador to Slovenia, Mario Nobilo has received a protest note from the Slovenian government. This is the latest incident in this region, which both countries claim belongs to them.

At the end of last month, Slovenia sent another protest note, concerning the sale of land in the Buje region, which the Croatian government rejected, stating that it was clear from the cadastre and land registers that the land in question was Croatian.

Zagreb, March 20 (CP) — After a 6 month break, the Croatian Privatization Fund held a meeting of its board of directors today, announcing a public tender for the purchase of just under 67% of shares in the Karlovac based dairy producer KIM.

The starting price given is 15.8 million kuna, 75% of the estimated value of the 70 thousand, 2 hundred and 27 shares on offer. The tender will run until the 21st of April and one of its conditions is that the new owners keep on all of the company’s existing employees.

Prior to the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec announced that Croatia had lost its court case against the Hypo, Alpe Adria Bank group and would have to pay damages of 40 million Euros, for providing incorrect information about certain Slavonian banks, prior to their sale.

Zagreb, March 20 (CP) — The US president G.W. Bush is to visit Croatia on April 4 and 5 together with his wife Laura. Also accompanying the US president will be State Secretary Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

This was announced by the state secretary at the Foreign Ministry Bianca Matkovic, who is also the chief coordinator for preparations for the visit.

Matkovic said that the advance US security expert groups were already in Croatia working on safety issues with their Croatian counterparts.

On Friday April 4, Bush will be meeting with president Stjepan Mesic, while on April 5 he will be in the company of PM Ivo Sanader. Bush will be accommodated at one of Zagreb’s hotels and will be offered Croatian food specialties during his visit.

Zagreb, March 19 (CP) — The president of the national committee in charge of monitoring negotiations with the EU, Vesna Pusic has said that Croatia had done the right thing regarding the recognition of Kosovo, as Kosovo needs to be recognized as a political fact and also because some things need to be done because they are just. 

The SDP leader Zoran Milanovic said that Serbia was a neighbour and an important partner, but at this point in time the government did the only possible thing and that was to recognize Kosovo. 

The IDS deputy leader Damir Kajin said that the recognition of Kosovo represented a political reality which Croatia could not avoid adding that he did not think the recognition of Kosovo would endanger the stability of the government.

Albanians in Croatia have expressed satisfaction with the latest decision by the Croatian government on recognizing Kosovo. The president of the national coordination of the council of Albanian minority Luigj Daka said he hoped that diplomatic offices of the two countries would be opened soon.

Zagreb, March 19 (CP) – Former Croatian tennis player Goran Ivanisevic has decided to move his family to the States after being found out of cheating on his partner Tanja Dragovic with a local model.

It has been reported that Ivanisevic, his partner and two children arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday, greeted by a hoard of paparazzi.

In a candid interview that Ivanisevic gave to a Croatian news portal, he explained that the only way he was hoping to patch up things with his partner was to move away from Croatia until things simmer down.

He took full responsiblity for his conniving actions and said he was hoping that at some point Tanja Dragovic would forgive him and they can resume normal family life and forget his betrayal.

Ivanisevic also said he would return to Croatia at some point in the summer.

Zagreb, March 19 (CP) – At its closed-door session, the Croatian government has formally recognized Kosovo’s independence, joining some 30 countries that have recognized it so far.

Kosovo had declared its independence on February 17.

It is yet to be seen now how the government coalition partners, namely the Independent  Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) will react to this and whether the recognition will result in the break-up of the government coalition with the SDSS walking out, as threatened earlier.

Zagreb, March 19 (CP) –At the ATP Masters Series tennis tournament underway in Indian Wells California, Ivan Ljubicic remains Croatia’s only competitor after defeating Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3, 6-4 yesterday.

Ljubicic faces Roger Federer of Switzerland next. Both Mario Ancic and Karlovic were eliminated in thier third round matches.

The Slovenian ministry of Agriculture issued a statement yesterday which denied claims which appeared in some Croatian media sources, that Slovenia intends to charge Croatia for alleged damages done to Slovenian fishermen as a result of implementation of the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone in the Adriatic.

The statement explained that there had been a misunderstanding due to the publication of a news item in the Ljubljana daily, Delo. The Slovenian ministry said that the official government stance during the zone’s implementation was that nothing had changed in the Adriatic and that Slovenian fishermen could still fish where they had fished before.