Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, March 15 (CP) – The deputy Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Zeljka Antunovic has resigned from post, due to ‘deep divisions’ within the party.

Antunovic announced her decision at the Party’s central committee session, which began on Saturday morning.

An official announcement by Antunovic is expected later on Saturday.

According to those close to Antunovic, she has been mulling over this move for some months now.

There have been reports of squabbles within the SDP over the parliamentary results that have not been as good as was hoped for. Many blame the recently elected SDP leader Zoran Milanovic for the Party not doing better.

Zagreb, March 15 (CP) – Since the Protected Ecology and Fisheries Zone’s (ZERP) implementation in Croatia against EU countries has been postponed as of Saturday, Italian and Slovene fishing boats can now fish freely in this segment of the sea.

Although HSS MPs as well as HSP leader and two SDP MPs voted against of the postponement of the ZERP implementation, this was not enough to protect it from being postponed.

In return, Croatia has for the first time been given a tentative date for completion of its EU entry negotiations by European Commission president Juan Manuel Barroso, but on condition that it fulfils all provisions set.

This leaves the ball once again in Croatia’s court and not much has been gained by backing down on ZERP, as it is quite easy for Croatia not to be able to fulfil all the demands regarding judiciary restructuring and return of those who left the country during the war, as the key issues.

Croatia had started officially implementing ZERP on January 1, 2008, but the move was met by protests from Italy and Slovenia which led to the current haling of the actual implementation of the Zone.

Zagreb, March 15 (CP) – A 3.3 magnitude quake with the epicentre near the Kornat, some 40 kilometres south of Zadar was recorded at 5:28 a.m. local time on Saturday morning.

The moderate tremor could be felt by residents of Kornat, Pasman, Dugi otok, Zadar and Biograd.

Four similar quakes were recorded in the area last year.

Zagreb, March 15 (CP) – The first flight on the regular airlink between the eastern Croatian town of Osijek with Cologne in Germany, touched down at the local airport on Friday.

This is the first time in 17 years that Osijek has had an international flight connection.

The planes are to link the two cities twice a week with the price of tickets ranging from €19- 150.

Some 140 passengers arrived in Osijek on the maiden flight.

Zagreb, March 14 (CP) – A direct flight is to be introduced between the Croatian coastal town of Pula and the Serbian capital of Belgrade on June 19, for the first time in 27 years.

The deal was signed by Pula airport director Bruno Rogovic and JetAirways commercial director Ilija Todoric.

The two have expressed hope that by June, Croatia and Serbia will have signed an agreement on air traffic, avoiding problems in the establishment of the link.

The planes are to shuttle between Belgrade and Pula twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays.

Zagreb, March 14 (CP) – The Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic has stated he believed that Croatia would fulfil all the necessary conditions in order to complete EU entry negotiations until 2009.

Jandrokovic has said that all the necessary chapters are still to be negotiated, but added he hoped negotiations would end by 2009.

The Croatian Foreign Minister has said that by putting in a lot of effort, Croatia would enter the EU in 2009 and stressed that Croatia was going in the right direction saying he believed the upcoming visit by US president G.W. Bush was proof of this.

The White House has confirmed president Bush would be visiting Croatia following the NATO summit in Bucharest taking place on April 2-4.

Zagreb, March 14 (CP) – The fourth day of the trial of three Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, a prosecution witness said she personally did not witness any crimes being committed, but heard of this happening.

The trial is to continue on April 7 after a 3-week recess.

The ICTY judiciary council has denied Gen. Cermak temporary release until the continuation of proceedings and announced it would put forth the reasons for this later in the day.

Zagreb, March 14 (CP) – According to a GfK poll recently conducted among Croatian citizens some 61 percent are in favour of the country joining NATO.

The poll has also shown that some 21 percent are against joining the Alliance, while some 18 percent are unsure.

More support than from other groups has been given by those surveyed from Istria and Primorje, Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun and Banovina, up to 65 percent, while the most determined have been people with high education, namely 70 percent of the surveyed support the idea.

Only 20 percent of citizens do not think that there still exist instabilities in the region, while three quarters still feel there exist certain instabilities.

About 83 percent of those surveyed think that NATO entry will enable Croatia security and power that other member-countries enjoy and will also secure more foreign investments, something 70 percent of the surveyed believe to be the case.

The Croatian Pensioners’ Party (HSU) leader Vladimir Jordan has resigned during Friday’s HSU electoral party convention and backed down from running for another mandate.

He explained his decision by saying that over the past three months there had been a lot of group pitched against group activity within the party and he no longer wishes to work in such an environment.

He also said that he could not accept the accusations of certain groups within the party saying he was the only person to blame for the failure of the party at the parliamentary elections.

Some 300 delegates are to choose between the two remaining candidates for party leader, the only HSU MP Silvano Hrelja and a member of the party presidency Mihajlo Tomaskovic.

Zagreb, March 14 (CP) – Slovene drug dealer boss Kristijan Kamenik who is currently on trial for quadruple murder has been arrested and suspected of leading an illegal drugs smuggling rings in the Rijeka area.

Although Kamenik had his own people coming in to contact with the drugs, he himself made sure he was never close to the stash.

He is believed to have cashed in €20,000 for each sold kilogram of heroin.

Kamenik and his two direct accomplices smuggled heroin from Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Kamenik has been on trial since June of 2007 for the quadruple murder and he is to soon stand another trial in Serbia for heroin smuggling.