Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) – Finnish ski champion Tanja Poutiainen has won the women’s slalom race held at Croatia’s Mt. Sljeme near the capital of Zagreb, while Austria’s Marilies Schield came in second and Slovakia’s Veronika Zuzulova third.

Croatian skiers Ana Jelusic and Sofija Novoselic had dropped out of the race in the first run and the only Croatian who completed both the first and second race was Nika Fleiss, ending the event in 15th place.

The winner Tanja Poutiainen has won the event for the second time.

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) – The Varazdin mayor Ivan Cehok has met with the San Marino Cassa di Risparmio CEO Gilbert Ghiotto, the two announcing the opening of the San Marino consulate in Varazdin.

The consulate is to assist the strengthening of economic relations.

The Cassa di Risparmio bank has begun business cooperation with Banka Kovanica bank in Varazdin.

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) – The association of consumer protection organisations in Croatia have revealed the results of a weeklong boycott on shopping on Friday.

Although the representatives of two key agencies said they were pleased with the outcome, it has actually been revealed that the general public did not take much notice of the ban and had still flocked to shopping centres, particularly during Valentine’s Day.

Surveys conducted during the period have shown that most people were forced to boycott shopping, due to their financial situation, so they were buying just the basic necessities.

The consumer protection organisations have said the only way they could assess the level of the consumers’ response to the boycott was to monitor shops and they decided there were less customers and the shopping carts were not as full as they would normally be.

They have suggested the re-introduction of the parliament consumers’ commission in a bid to prevent future price hike shocks like the one at the start of the year.

The Commission would also be tasked with discussing all the bills and other measures that could impact consumers.

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) – At its Brussels meeting on Monday, the EU council is to call on Croatia once again not to implement a single aspect of the Protected Ecology and Fisheries Belt (ZERP) against EU members until a satisfactory solution is found, sources from the Slovene presidency have stated.

The Council is to repeat its December 10, 2007 conclusions and will also discuss the issue at one of its future meetings.

It will also call on the European Commission to continue its dialogue with Croatia on the issue and submit a report on this.

The EU expansion commissioner Olli Rehn has recently stated that the Commission was talking to all interested sides and exploring the possibilities in the solving of the problem, but was not ready to discuss this in public as yet.

The EU heads of diplomacy have adopted a conclusion on December 10, 2007 calling on Croatia to fully adhere by the agreement of June 4, 2004 regarding ZERP, which stipulates it would not be implemented against EU countries.

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) – A 47-year-old man in the Croatian capital Zagreb fell to his death from a second floor landing of an apartment building.

He fell from more than nine meters and landed on a concrete patch, dying instantly.

The police are investigating the circumstances of the death, but not treating it as suspicious.

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) — Vedran Duvnjak, who has until now been the assistant Finance Minister has become the new president of the Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP). The decision on this was made at the closed-door portion of the government session on Thursday, while the acting HFP president Grga Ivezic has been relieved of his duties and named the director of the Agency for Legal Traffic and Real-estate Management.

Zagreb, February 15 (CP) — The government has announced the sale of 12 percent of shares of the Petrochemical plant to its workers and the redefining of the agreement on mutual relations of the INA shares holders, after the state-owned shares in INA dropped below 50 percent.

A special commission has been established in order to redefine the agreement and attempt to retain as broad as possible the rights of the state towards MOL, the strategic partner.

Zagreb, February 14 (CP) – The five men indicted for the killing of the Olujic family, father Radomir, mother Anica and their two children have been sentenced to a total of 57 years in prison by the county court.
The killing happened some 16 years ago in Cerna, eastern Croatia, when the five men attacked the Serb family thinking they had money from the sale of a business space in Vinkovci.
The killing was exceptionally brutal, with the 13-year-old being killed point-blanc with a bullet to the head and the rest of the family also being massacred.
Tomislav Madi was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Mario Juric to 12 and the three others are to spend 10, eight and seven years in prison.
 

Zagreb, February 14 (CP) – Everything is ready for the Snow Queen trophy women’s slalom race that is to take place at Mt. Sljeme on Friday with some 65 skiers taking part.

Some 18 TV stations are to cover the event live. Croatia’s Ana Jelusic is to be the ninth to start, while Sweden’s Theresse Borssen is to be the first to ski down the Sljeme slopes.

Some 18,000 viewers are expected to come to Sljeme and watch the race, the first race beginning at 3 pm and the second at 6.

Zagreb, February 14 (CP) — The PM Ivo Sanader spoke at the start of the government session on Thursday about his recent meeting with the central bank governor and leading bankers.

He said that the government would hold the budget deficit under control and said it would not be higher this year than the previous one.

Sanader said that the government will attempt to make the budget deficit lower than last year’s which stood at 2.4 percent.